H.R. 743 — Tim’s Act

This section establishes the short title of the Act as the “Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act” or “Tim’s Act”; defines key terms including “Director” (i.e., Director of the Office of Personnel Management), “Federal wildland firefighter” (i.e., temporary, seasonal, or permanent positions at the Department of Agriculture or Interior, and Tribal Firefighters, that maintain specified wildland fire qualifications and primarily engage in or support wildland fire management activities), and “Secretaries” (i.e., Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of the Interior); and sets forth the table of contents.

This section establishes special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters—defined to include temporary, seasonal, or permanent positions at the Departments of Agriculture and Interior (or Tribal firefighters) that maintain National Wildfire Coordinating Group fire qualifications and primarily engage in or support wildland fire management (e.g., forestry technicians, dispatchers, and fire management)—by increasing General Schedule base rates by 42% (GS-1) to 1.5% (GS-15) and providing comparable increases (as determined by the Secretaries after consultation) for prevailing rate employees, not to exceed Executive Schedule level IV. These special rates replace otherwise applicable General Schedule or prevailing rates, constitute basic pay for all purposes (including retirement, locality pay, and special rates), and adjust with General Schedule changes. The amendments take effect on the first day of the first pay period after the last pay period for which temporary wildland firefighter salary increases were in effect under prior law (i.e., Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act §40803(d)(4)(B), as extended).

This section establishes incident response premium pay under a new section 5545c of title 5, United States Code, for covered employees of the Forest Service or Department of the Interior—defined as wildland firefighters or those certified to perform related duties—who are deployed outside their duty station or to an incident-adjacent fire camp for a qualifying incident (i.e., wildfire, prescribed fire, severity assignment with high wildfire risk, or similar, excluding initial attacks contained within 36 hours). Eligible employees receive premium pay at a daily rate of 450% of their hourly basic pay (using the GS-10 step 10 rate for those paid above it), capped at $9,000 per calendar year; the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior must assess pay differences from FY2023-2024 levels, report to Congress, and may administratively adjust rates to align with FY2023 averages. Such premium pay is not considered basic pay and is excluded from calculations for annual leave, overtime, or Fair Labor Standards Act purposes.

This section adds a new section 5547a to title 5, U.S. Code, to establish special premium pay rules for covered wildland firefighters of the Forest Service and Department of the Interior (effective the first pay period with a payment date in January 2026). Premium pay earned by such employees for covered services (i.e., emergency wildfire suppression activities, including rest periods during extended deployments) is disregarded in applying the biweekly aggregate pay limitation under section 5547 (generally capping basic pay plus premium pay at the maximum GS-15 rate or level V Executive Schedule rate) and the annual pay limitation under section 5307. Such disregarded premium pay may not cause the covered employee's annual aggregate of basic pay, other premium pay, and hazard pay under section 5545(d) to exceed the level II Executive Schedule rate (with any biweekly-limited premium pay under section 5547(c) applied first), though the agency head may waive this limit after establishing criteria; for prevailing rate (wage grade) employees, premium pay is separately capped annually at the level II rate when aggregated with basic pay (i.e., wages, environmental and night differentials). Additional pay from these rules is excluded from lump-sum annual leave calculations under sections 5551 and 5552, and agencies must maintain related records. Separately, for calendar year 2025 (effective the first applicable pay period beginning on or after October 1, 2025), incident standby premium pay is included in premium pay subject to the limits of section 5547 and a specified statutory note.

This section establishes paid rest and recuperation leave for covered wildland firefighters (i.e., Forest Service or Department of the Interior employees qualifying as wildland firefighters or certified for wildland fire incident duties) following a qualifying wildland fire incident, effective the first pay period beginning on or after October 1, 2025. The Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, after mutual consultation, set implementation policies at their discretion; the leave must be used immediately during scheduled tour-of-duty hours, is paid like annual leave, and cannot be carried over or paid out if unused (with intermittent-schedule employees similarly excused from duty and paid).

This section requires the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture, not later than one year after enactment, to establish and annually update a publicly accessible database—the Federal Wildland Firefighter Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Database—to track chronic diseases from on-the-job environmental exposures among current and former federal wildland firefighters and to develop related mitigation recommendations. The section further requires those Secretaries, not later than January 1, 2026, to establish a mental health program for federal wildland firefighters and their immediate families that includes (1) a mental health awareness campaign; (2) education, training, and onboarding curriculum; (3) peer-to-peer support network; (4) expansion of the Critical Incident Stress Management Program to increase qualified mental health professionals, monitor mental health trends, and provide long-term care; and (5) a new, unlimited-session mental health support service with trauma-informed professionals. Additionally, the section entitles each federal wildland firefighter to 7 consecutive days of paid mental health leave per calendar year (non-accumulating and not counted as annual or vacation leave); authorizes coordination with other entities; and directs the Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) to (1) recognize post-traumatic stress disorder and psychological stress-related injuries from wildland fire activities with long-term coverage and (2) expand its Special Claims Unit to expedite claims processing for affected firefighters and support personnel.

This section amends retirement provisions under chapters 83 and 84 of title 5, U.S. Code, for Federal wildland firefighters (as defined in section 1 of the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act) as follows: (1) makes service performed on or after January 1, 1989, creditable under FERS if the firefighter submits a written election to the Office of Personnel Management and meets deposit requirements under section 8411(f); (2) deems firefighters disabled due to diseases specified in section 8143b(b)(2) (e.g., from smoke inhalation, silicate inhalation, or firefighting toxic exposure) eligible for FERS disability annuity under section 8451 with a service requirement of 12 months (from 18 months); (3) includes overtime pay received on or after enactment as basic pay under section 8331(3) for CSRS annuity computation; and (4) provides a separate normal-cost percentage under section 8423(a)(1)(B)(i) for FERS contributions.

This section requires that, not later than one year after enactment, pay, benefits, and bonuses for federal structural firefighters (i.e., firefighters as defined in 5 U.S.C. §8401 excluding federal wildland firefighters) be comparable to those provided to federal wildland firefighters under this Act and its amendments. The section further directs the Director to submit a report to Congress, not later than one year after establishment of the pay scale under new 5 U.S.C. §5332a, assessing whether pay for federal structural firefighters is competitive with that for federal wildland firefighters.

This section requires annual adjustments to the basic pay rate for Federal wildland firefighters in the new pay scale established under 5 U.S.C. §5332a by at least the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (December of the preceding year over December two years prior, to the nearest one-tenth of 1%). It also directs the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture, within one year after that pay scale is established, to report to Congress on the comparability of Federal wildland firefighters' pay, benefits, and bonuses to those of non-Federal firefighters in the relevant state or locality. This section entitles Federal wildland firefighters performing specified hazardous duties (prescribed fire, parachuting, tree climbing over 20 feet, hazard tree removal, or other duties identified by the Secretaries) to hazardous duty pay differentials under 5 U.S.C. §5545(d). This section further (1) establishes a recruitment and retention bonus program under which primary or secondary Federal wildland firefighters receive a bonus of not less than $1,000 (adjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index as described in subsection (a)) upon successfully completing a work capacity test, not more than once per calendar year; (2) requires a housing allowance for firefighters deployed more than 50 miles from their primary residence, in an amount set and adjusted by the Secretaries based on local housing costs; and (3) directs establishment of a voluntary tuition assistance program for permanent-position firefighters, providing not less than $4,000 per calendar year (not more than once annually) for a broad range of educational programs, subject to annual review for adequacy considering inflation.

This section directs the Secretary of the Interior to develop, not later than 6 months after enactment, the Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program to provide assistance to next-of-kin of firefighters who suffer illness or are critically injured or killed in the line of duty and wildland fire support personnel critically injured or killed in the line of duty. The program must address (1) initial and subsequent notifications to next-of-kin; (2) reimbursement of next-of-kin travel expenses; (3) qualifications, training, duties, supervision, and accountability for casualty assistance officers; (4) relief or transfer of such officers; (5) centralized short-term and long-term case management; (6) no-cost provision of benefits information via website and other means; (7) complaint and additional assistance mechanisms; (8) liaison with the Departments of the Interior and Justice and the Social Security Administration; and (9) data collection, in consultation with the U.S. Fire Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The program does not affect existing line-of-duty death benefits authorities and defines next-of-kin by priority as (1) surviving legal spouse; (2) children age 18 or older by descending age; (3) father or mother (adoptive over natural); (4) siblings age 18 or older by descending age; (5) grandparents; or (6) other relatives per the deceased's state law of descent.

This section revises the definition of "firefighter" under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) in 5 U.S.C. §8401(14) to include (1) employees whose primary duties involve controlling and extinguishing non-wildland fires and require young, physically vigorous individuals; (2) employees whose primary duties involve controlling and extinguishing wildland fires and require young, physically vigorous individuals; (3) those transferred directly to supervisory or administrative positions after at least 3 years performing duties under (1) with no break in service; and (4) those in supervisory or administrative positions after at least 3 years performing duties under (2) with no more than 24 months total breaks in service. (FERS firefighters are eligible for enhanced retirement benefits, including annuities after 20 years of service at age 50 or 30 years at age 55 and a 1.7% accrual rate for the first 20 years versus 1.0% generally. Thus, the revision expands eligibility to wildland firefighters and allows limited breaks for certain supervisory roles previously excluded.) This section further treats service performed from October 1, 2003, through the day before enactment by current FERS employees as firefighter service—provided it meets prior deduction requirements under 5 U.S.C. §§8422-8423, the employee had breaks in service disqualifying firefighter status under prior law but would qualify under new §8401(14)(D), and the employee submits a written election and remits additional employee deductions plus interest under §8422 (with the prior employer remitting additional agency contributions plus interest under §8423). The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must notify and assist eligible individuals, including in obtaining verification from the Departments of Agriculture or Interior.