Boosting firefighter pay gains momentum in Congress

Supporting federally funded firefighters is one climate-related priority uniting Democrats and Republicans in Congress, even as they remain starkly divided over the issue in general.

Momentum is growing to pass legislation raising federal wildland firefighter wages, as a temporary salary increase is set to expire Sept. 30. Without it, the salaries for tens of thousands of federal firefighters could be significantly rolled back just as blazes are expected to be raging at an above-normal pace in some parts of the country. 

Cardell Johnson, director of natural resources and the environment at the Government Accountability Office, testified before Congress in favor of permanent changes to the pay rate. He told The Climate 202 that lawmakers “seem very interested” in it based on the questions they asked. 

Indeed, lawmakers have introduced bills that would at least codify the current pay increase issued by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, which bumped firefighter paychecks to a minimum of $15 per hour and increased pay by $20,000 or 50 percent of base salary, whichever was lower.

• A bill from Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.) would raise minimum pay to $20 per hour and address other benefits for firefighters, including housing, hazard pay and mental and physical health. 
• And a measure from a bipartisan group of six senators led by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) would permanently maintain the same raise secured by the law. It will be marked up by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday. 

Lawmakers mostly agree that federal firefighters need more support in the battle against dangerous wildfires, especially as climate change extends the fire season and causes blazes to be more intense. 

“For years, wildland firefighters have been asked to do too much for too little,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who co-sponsored the bill, said in a statement. “These brave heroes must be compensated for risking their lives to protect forests and communities in Wyoming and across the West.” 

Neguse said in an interview that he plans to introduce the House companion to the Senate bill in the coming weeks. 

“These permanent pay increases take an important step forward towards fairly paying our firefighters,” he said. “We cannot allow our federal firefighters to suffer because of partisan politics.” 

On the ground

The momentum comes after three straight years of especially damaging wildfire seasons. In the western United States, the average number of acres burned per year doubled during the 2001-2018 period compared with 1984 to 2000. 

According to the GAO, low pay poses the greatest barrier to recruitment and retention for the federal firefighting workforce, which is made up of about 18,700 firefighters, including management and other support staff, from the Forest Service and four agencies within the Interior Department. 

Firefighters working for state and municipal fire agencies often fight the same fires as wildland firefighters but earn significantly more. A recent report from Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an advocacy group, said federal firefighters were paid on average 32.51 percent less than their state counterparts, with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection firefighters earning about 56 percent more than federal ones.

• Beyond having a larger base pay, Cal Fire employees also receive more robust benefits, including a retirement plan, and have more mandated downtime per week, which was just reduced to a 66-hour workweek from 72 hours. 

Johnson said if Congress addresses pay, many of the other issues straining firefighters would eventually slip away, including poor work-life balance, career advancement diversity challenges, remote or expensive duty stations, and a mental health crisis.

“You’ve got all these barriers, but one common denominator across 95 percent of the barriers is pay,” he said. 

Current and former federal firefighters also told The Climate 202 that burnout, a lack of resources and a need to update the federal firefighting mission cuts into the overall morale of the force while on-site. 

• “Young people are just not that interested in just jumping on a treadmill of endless attack of fires; they want to be part of solutions, particularly in the climate crisis,” said Tim Ingalsbee, a former wildland firefighter and co-founder of the group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. 
• The infrastructure law has “definitely been a game changer, as far as being able to afford rent,” said a current Forest Service smokejumper who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss issues while on the job. But, he said, as more and more people leave, “the people that are left have to do more work, and they get more burned out, and then they leave … there’s no coming out of it without a significant pay raise just to make up for all the work we have to do.” 

Nothing’s for certain

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) told The Climate 202 that any increase in spending would need to be offset elsewhere. 

He added that any bill to address wildland firefighter concerns would need to be looked at more holistically “than just saying, oh, here’s a problem, let’s throw more money at it.” 

• “I think Congress needs to look at what we can do that would have immediate impact,” Westerman said. “And managing the forest is something that can happen much more quickly than we can reverse any damage done by climate change.” 

Save our Sequoias

Another bipartisan House bill, the Save Our Sequoias Act, which is backed by Westerman, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), and other western lawmakers seeks to help protect California’s sequoia trees against severe wildfires that are being exacerbated by heat and extreme drought conditions caused by global warming. 

A spokesperson for the speaker’s office told The Climate 202 in an email: “The Save Our Sequoias Act continues to be a top priority for Speaker McCarthy, and he remains committed to bringing it to the House Floor for a vote.” 

Tom Erb, a climate policy director for Peters, said in an interview that given the bipartisan interest in the issue, there’s likely to be a larger wildfire package in the coming months, but lawmakers will probably act immediately on firefighter pay.