H.R. 435 — Direct Hire To Fight Fires

This section establishes direct hire authority for the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to appoint qualified candidates to federal wildland firefighting positions and supporting positions in the Forest Service and Department of the Interior, respectively, without regard to standard competitive civil service hiring requirements (5 U.S.C. §§3309–3318 and specified CFR parts). Positions covered include the following occupational series (or successors), with certain administrative, natural resources, engineering, dispatching, and equipment roles limited to those supporting firefighting and eligible for primary or secondary firefighter retirement coverage: (1) Forestry Technician (GS-0462); (2) Aircraft Operation (GS-2181); (3) Miscellaneous Administration and Program (GS-0301); (4) General Natural Resources Management and Biological Sciences (GS-0401); (5) Aviation Management Specialist (GS-2101); (6) Engineering Equipment Operator (WG, WL, or WS-5716); (7) Dispatching (GS-2151); (8) Equipment Specialist (GS-1670); and (9) any additional series developed specifically for wildland firefighting. (Thus, this authority enables expedited hiring to address shortages of personnel for federal wildland fire management.)

This section directs the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, to implement, not later than one year after enactment, policies to recruit and retain wildland firefighters and wildland firefighting support personnel by (1) reducing hiring timelines, (2) eliminating redundancies in the federal hiring process, (3) streamlining rehiring of prior agency employees, and (4) reducing interagency transfer barriers. It further requires the Secretaries to submit annual reports to specified congressional committees beginning one year after enactment (by February 1 each year thereafter)—covering anticipated hiring needs by position, planned hiring events, current employees by position, vacancies by state, hiring barriers, implementation of direct hiring authority under section 2 and streamlined policies under subsection (a), and recommendations to Congress—and to publish the reports on public websites.