# Wildland Firefighter Recognition Act

This bill creates a new official job classification specifically for wildland firefighters working for the federal government. Right now, wildland firefighters are classified under generic titles like "forestry technician" or "range technician," which doesn't accurately describe what they actually do. The bill requires the Office of Personnel Management to develop a distinct occupational series with "Wildland Firefighter" in the official job title, giving these workers a classification that properly reflects their dangerous and specialized work.

The practical effect is that federal wildland firefighters—those who work for agencies like the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service—would have job titles and classifications that match their real responsibilities. This matters because job classifications affect how positions are advertised, how people are hired, and how pay and benefits are structured. The bill gives the government two years to complete this new classification system and requires the Interior and Agriculture departments to use it when hiring and advertising wildland firefighter positions going forward.

The bill also protects an important benefit called hazardous duty differential pay. This is extra compensation that federal employees receive for working in dangerous conditions. The change ensures that wildland firefighters remain eligible for this hazard pay even with their new classification. Current wildland firefighters get a choice—they can either keep their existing job classification or switch to the new wildland firefighter classification, so no one is forced into a change against their will.

Wildland Firefighter Recognition Act

LaMalfa, Doug

Wildland Firefighter Recognition Act This bill requires the Office of Personnel Management to develop a distinct wildland firefighter occupational series. The series must apply to the following positions <ul> <li>forestry technician;</li> <li>range technician; </li> <li>other positions related to significant prevention, preparedness, control, suppression, or management activities for wildland firefighters; and </li> <li>other positions conducting activities necessary to meet any other emergency incident. </li> </ul> The Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture must use the series in the advertising and hiring of a wildland firefighter. The bill requires an employee in a wildland firefighter occupational series to receive a pay differential based on the unusual physical hardship or hazardous nature of the position. An individual employed as a wildland firefighter on the date on which the occupational series takes effect may (1) remain in the occupational series in which the individual is working, or (2) be included in the wildland firefighter occupational series.