Wildfire Firefighter Pay

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEGUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague and classmate from the great State of Washington. Dr. Schrier has been a tireless advocate for our wildland firefighters, effective forest management, and ensuring that we make the necessary investments that we know must be made for wildfire resiliency and mitigation.

Of course, all of those issues are incredibly important to the people of her great State and, as she mentioned, certainly incredibly important to the people of Colorado, the State that I am privileged to represent in the United States Congress.

In particular, I thank Representative Schrier for hosting and facilitating this opportunity on the House floor. Madam Speaker, you heard from so many of our colleagues, each of whom are leaders in their own right, particularly from the Rocky Mountain West and the Western United States, from Nevada, California, Arizona, of course, and many other States in the Intermountain West, all of which are grappling with these challenges that have become so prevalent and pernicious in our part of the country.

I am grateful that House Democrats are working really hard across party lines because, of course, none of these issues are partisan in nature. Wildfires don't respect political boundaries or jurisdictional limitations. They impact every citizen of the West and every citizen of our country. It is critical for us to marshal the necessary resources to ultimately address those challenges.

The particular challenge that I want to call attention to tonight, Madam Speaker, is one, of course, that you are familiar with and one that you have heard from many other of my colleagues this evening: The way in which Federal wildland firefighters are treated, in my view, by the Federal Government is patently unfair and unconscionable.

For years, we have relied on these first responders, these brave public servants, these courageous individuals, to protect our homes, our small businesses, our communities, and our States. They risk life and limb to protect us.

I say that having had multiple historic wildfires in my district back home in Colorado. The largest wildfire in the history of our State, the second largest wildfire in history of our State, the most destructive wildfire in the history of our State all happened within the last 4 years in the congressional district that I call home.

I have seen firsthand the sacrifices made by these wildland firefighters, and it is unconscionable that we don't pay them a living wage.

Now, we made a lot of progress because of Dr. Schrier's work leading the way with others, myself included, to ensure that, in the bipartisan infrastructure law, we finally provided a holistic pay structure that compensates our wildland firefighters. Not a panacea, didn't solve the problem, but it made progress, progress that we could build on.

Instead, unfortunately, right now we are poised to potentially go backward because, as you know, Madam Speaker, those core provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure law that largely codify the executive order that President Biden had issued previously to increase wildland firefighter pay, those provisions which were enhanced by a variety of other statutory provisions that we were able to enact through the NDAA last year to provide, as I said, more comprehensive pay scales for our wildland firefighters, are set to expire at the end of the month.

The clock is ticking, Madam Speaker, and it is incumbent upon every Member of this august body to come together, to work together, to find common ground, and do what is right by these wildland firefighters. They deserve it. They have earned it. The time for excuses, in my view, is long past gone.

I am committed, Madam Speaker, to working in good faith with anyone of either party to address this challenge and to ensure that our wildland firefighters are paid what they are owed. I am going to keep at it, working with Dr. Schrier and my many colleagues, and hope springs eternal that we will get this done because, of course, the stakes are too high for us not to get it done.

Madam Speaker, I give my gratitude to Representative Schrier for her leadership.

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