# 119-s-135: Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2025

119-s-135, Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2025, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2025-12-21).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-135
- As of: 2025-12-21
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-135
- Congress: 119
- Title: Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2025
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2025-01-16
- Sponsor: Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA)
- Cosponsors: 9
- Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2025-12-21

## Summary

**Higher, targeted pay for federal wildland firefighters.** This bill would create a new special base rate that raises annual pay across General Schedule grades for wildland firefighters, add a large daily incident premium for prolonged responses, and authorize paid rest-and-recuperation leave after deployments. - Wildland firefighters would get a replaceable "special base rate" in place of the usual GS base pay that boosts annual pay by grade, with increases ranging roughly from 42% down to 1.5% depending on grade. - Responders deployed to qualifying incidents that are not contained within 36 hours would be eligible for an "incident response premium pay" equal to 450% of hourly basic pay for each deployment day, with a $9,000 annual cap and protections for very high earners. - The bill would create paid rest-and-recuperation leave after qualifying deployments, require comparable leave pay for intermittent employees, direct wage adjustments for prevailing-rate wildland firefighters consistent with the special base rate, and allow transfer of up to $5 million from Forest Service wildfire funds to Interior to help continue the base pay increase.

## Cosponsors (9)

- Sen. Daines, Steve [R-MT] (R-MT), 2025-01-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Barrasso, John [R-WY] (R-WY), 2025-01-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Schiff, Adam B. [D-CA] (D-CA), 2025-01-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Sheehy, Tim [R-MT] (R-MT), 2025-01-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Heinrich, Martin [D-NM] (D-NM), 2025-01-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Lummis, Cynthia M. [R-WY] (R-WY), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Peters, Gary C. [D-MI] (D-MI), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Curtis, John R. [R-UT] (R-UT), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (D-OR), 2025-01-28T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Daily incident premium pay for deployments: benefit, high. If enacted, this would pay a daily incident response premium to covered Forest Service and Interior wildland firefighters deployed to qualifying incidents. The daily premium would equal 450% of your hourly rate of basic pay, rounded to the nearest cent. For employees paid above the locality GS-10 s…
- Higher base pay for wildland firefighters: benefit, high. If enacted, this would create a special base pay rate that replaces the General Schedule (GS) base for eligible Forest Service and Interior wildland firefighters. The special rate would be the GS base increased by a grade-specific percent and rounded to the nearest dollar. Specified increases inclu…
- Paid rest leave after deployments: benefit, medium. If enacted, this would give paid rest and recuperation leave to covered Forest Service and Interior wildland firefighters after qualifying deployments. The two Secretaries would jointly set uniform policies, which may require a minimum rest period after a maximum deployment or limit average hours w…
- Wage increases for wage‑grade firefighters: benefit, medium. If enacted, this would let the Agriculture and Interior Secretaries increase prevailing-rate (wage‑grade) pay for wildland firefighters. Any increase would be generally consistent with the GS special base rate percentages, count as basic pay for the same purposes as other wage rates, and could not…
- Small fund transfer to continue pay: benefit, low. If enacted, this would allow up to $5,000,000 of unused Forest Service wildland fire management funds to be moved to Interior wildland fire programs. The transfer is to help keep the federal wildland firefighter base salary increase in effect without interruption. The authority is limited to not mo…

## Related bills

- 119-s-5066: Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026
- 119-s-1241: Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025
- 119-s-4429: Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026
- 119-sres-913: A resolution relating to the death of the Honorable Nancy Kassebaum, former United States Senator for the State of Kansas.
- 119-sres-897: A resolution honoring the life, service, and legacy of the Honorable Jon Llewellyn Kyl, former Senator for the State of Arizona.
- 119-sres-837: A resolution designating the week of August 22 through August 30, 2026, as "National Park Week".

## Sources
- [119-s-135 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/135)

## Related
- [119-s-5066: Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5066)
- [119-s-1241: Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1241)
- [119-s-4429: Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4429)
- [119-sres-913: A resolution relating to the death of the Honorable Nancy Kassebaum, former Uni…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-sres-913)
- [119-sres-897: A resolution honoring the life, service, and legacy of the Honorable Jon Llewel…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-sres-897)
- [119-sres-837: A resolution designating the week of August 22 through August 30, 2026, as "Nat…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-sres-837)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-135 (as of 2025-12-21).