# 119-hr-743: Tim’s Act

119-hr-743, Tim’s Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Neguse, Joe [D-CO-2] (D-CO); status in_committee; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-09-21).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-743
- As of: 2026-09-21
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-743
- Congress: 119
- Title: Tim’s Act
- Status: in_committee
- Introduced: 2025-01-28
- Sponsor: Rep. Neguse, Joe [D-CO-2] (D-CO)
- Cosponsors: 16
- Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-09-21

## Summary

**Would create pay parity for federal wildland firefighters.** The bill would replace the General Schedule base rate with a Special Base Rate and add steep deployment pay, new leave, health supports, and retirement credit to match the risks of wildland firefighting. - Federal wildland firefighters would move to a Special Base Rate that replaces the GS base for pay and locality calculations. Deployment days would pay an "incident response premium" equal to 450% of the hourly rate, capped at $9,000 per calendar year. - Workers would get new paid Rest and Recuperation leave and 7 consecutive calendar days of mental health leave per year. The bill would require a public cancer and cardiovascular disease database and a mental health program with peer support and unlimited dedicated sessions. - It would allow retroactive credit for certain pre-enactment service if employees make required deposits and would count specified overtime toward retirement. The measure would create a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program for next of kin and set aggregate pay caps tied to Executive Schedule levels while allowing limited Secretarial waivers.

## Cosponsors (16)

- Rep. Harder, Josh [D-CA-9] (D-CA), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Fitzpatrick, Brian K. [R-PA-1] (R-PA), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Pettersen, Brittany [D-CO-7] (D-CO), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Lofgren, Zoe [D-CA-18] (D-CA), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Stansbury, Melanie A. [D-NM-1] (D-NM), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Hoyle, Val T. [D-OR-4] (D-OR), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Brownley, Julia [D-CA-26] (D-CA), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Bacon, Don [R-NE-2] (R-NE), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Levin, Mike [D-CA-49] (D-CA), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Thompson, Mike [D-CA-4] (D-CA), 2025-02-13T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Lawler, Michael [R-NY-17] (R-NY), 2025-03-11T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Schrier, Kim [D-WA-8] (D-WA), 2025-03-11T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Bresnahan, Robert P. [R-PA-8] (R-PA), 2025-04-24T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Bonamici, Suzanne [D-OR-1] (D-OR), 2026-01-08T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Whitesides, George [D-CA-27] (D-CA), 2026-06-30T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Perez, Marie Gluesenkamp [D-WA-3] (D-WA), 2026-08-31T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Bonuses, hazard pay, and housing: benefit, high. If enacted, the bill would create or expand several pay and support items to recruit and retain wildland firefighters. Agencies would establish a recruitment/retention bonus of at least $1,000 (increased yearly by CPI) payable once per calendar year after a work-capacity test. Permanent wildland fi…
- Higher base pay and parity: benefit, high. If enacted, Federal wildland firefighters would get a new special base pay scale that raises their GS base rate by a grade-specific percentage. The increases range by grade (for example, about 42% at GS-1 down to about 1.5% at GS-15) and are rounded to the nearest dollar. The special base pay would…
- Retirement, service credit, and overtime: benefit, high. If enacted, the bill would expand retirement protections and credit rules for Federal wildland firefighters. It would allow some prior Federal service (back to October 1, 2003, and certain service from 1989) to be credited as firefighter service if employees and agencies pay required deposits and i…
- Mental health and casualty support: benefit, medium. If enacted, the Secretaries would set up a mental health program and support services for wildland firefighters and their immediate family by January 1, 2026. Firefighters would get a dedicated support service with trauma-informed professionals and no session limits, training, peer networks, and an…
- Disease, disability, and claims help: benefit, medium. If enacted, certain exposure-related diseases in Federal wildland firefighters would be treated as disabling sooner, using 12 months instead of 18 months for relevant disability rules. The Department of Labor's OWCP would be directed to recognize PTSD and related psychological conditions from firef…
- New incident-response premium pay: mixed, high. If enacted, covered wildland firefighters deployed to qualifying incidents would get a daily incident response premium equal to 450% of their hourly basic pay (about 4.5 times the hourly rate). The total premium any one employee may receive is capped at $9,000 per calendar year. The bill also says…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-1262: Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act
- 119-hr-9877: Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026
- 119-hr-2598: IDEA Full Funding Act
- 119-hr-2550: Protect America's Workforce Act
- 119-hr-2102: Major Richard Star Act
- 119-hr-2048: Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act

## Sources
- [119-hr-743 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/743)

## Related
- [119-hr-1262: Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-1262)
- [119-hr-9877: Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-9877)
- [119-hr-2598: IDEA Full Funding Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-2598)
- [119-hr-2550: Protect America's Workforce Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-2550)
- [119-hr-2102: Major Richard Star Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-2102)
- [119-hr-2048: Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-2048)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-743 (as of 2026-09-21).