Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions
Floor Speech
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Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise to introduce the Wildland Firefighter Fair Pay Act to permanently increase the pay caps of some of the United States' most hard-working employees, who risk their lives to keep our communities safe and manage the land from severe wildfire.
In every State, we rely on Federal firefighters who spend weeks to months away from their families in dangerous conditions. As fire season turns into a year-round issue, firefighters must be compensated for their overtime work that grows each year.
The Wildland Firefighter Fair Pay Act would increase the overtime pay caps Federal wildland firefighters and adjust for the new proposed pay scale.
This overtime pay cap increase boost the Federal Agencies' ability to recruit Federal wildland firefighters and avoid firefighters walking off the line midincident or leaving for other opportunities.
As it stands, current United States Code limits wildland firefighters' premium pay and hurts Federal Agencies' ability to recruit and retain firefighters.
Building off the bipartisan infrastructure law, a bipartisan group of Senators and the White House are working to ensure that our wildland firefighters are compensated appropriately for their intense line of work. The ``Wlldfand Firefighter Fair Pay Act'' complements these efforts by ensuring that any pay bump would not be limited by a pay cap.
I would like to thank Senators Steve Daines, Martin Heinrich, Ben Ray Lujan, Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen, and Jon Tester for joining me in introducing this bill, as well as Representative Zoe Lofgren for championing this bill in the House.
Lastly, we owe these efforts to California's Late Senator Dianne Feinstein, who had written the original bill. We must continue Senator Feinstein's legacy of supporting our firefighters and investing in wildfire mitigation efforts across the country by permanently increasing the premium pay cap.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this necessary legislation to improve pay for Federal firefighters. ______
By Mr. THUNE (for himself and Mr. Carper):
S. 3224. A bill to codify Internal Revenue Service guidance relating to treatment of certain services and items for chronic conditions as meeting the preventive care deductible safe harbor for purposes of high deductible health plans in connection with health savings accounts; to the Committee on Finance.
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