Federal wildland firefighters across the country have been patiently waiting for Congress to permanently boost their notoriously low pay for years.
Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have finally earmarked money to do just that – leaving advocates cautiously optimistic.
Those twin bills – still in their infancy stage before they reach the floor for negotiations and a vote – provide special base rates and premium pay for federal wildland firefighters responding to large fires outside of their normal service area.
One would also unlock $4 million to build a health and wellness program to address industry-wide fatigue and injury.
“What was once a largely invisible workforce sequestered to remote pockets of the backcountry, and now we’re out of the backcountry and into people’s backyards,” said Jonathon Golden, a retired firefighter with over a decade of experience.
Golden said that the ongoing climate crisis has made the job, over time, much more difficult.
“We’re dealing with an issue that has now stretched beyond the summer months and creeps into the fall and into the winter,” Golden said. “And, now, this is a year-round activity.”
The issue of pay has been met with band-aid fixes in the past.
Back in 2022 – in the midst of New Mexico’s most devastating fire season to-date – President Joe Biden temporarily boosted wildland firefighter pay. The bipartisan infrastructure law provided funding through 2023, giving firefighters a boost of $20,000 to their base salary, or 50% of their current salary, whichever is lower.
Then, just before that boost was set to expire at the end of last September, firefighters with the U.S. Forest Service were told they would be receiving a 50% bump in their pay, only to learn that was not actually true, further tanking morale.
At the time, firefighters told KUNM they feared this mistake could trigger a mass exodus from the profession, further adding to a large gap in firefighter vacancies. Union representatives also expressed their concern.
Without Congressional action by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30th, wildland firefighters will face a devastating pay cut. Their pay boost is only being kept alive by the continuing resolution “minibus” budget package signed in March.
As firefighters head into their busiest month, often dubbed “dirty August,” Golden expects U.S. politicians to reach a stalemate over budget negotiations in the early Fall.
That, he said, would prevent federal firefighters from seeing a fix – for now.
