Daines Works to Protect Wildland Firefighter Pay

By Denise Rivette

Credit: U.S. Forest Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In addition to the bills Senator Steve Daines introduced today to prevent catastrophic wildfires, he earlier introduced his bipartisan “Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act” to maintain the pay raise secured for Montana wildland firefighters in Daines’ bipartisan “Wildland Firefighter Fair Pay Act” that was signed into law in 2021.

“Montana’s brave wildland firefighters put their lives on the line every day to protect our lands and our communities. I’m proud of this bipartisan, commonsense legislation that will make their well-earned pay raise permanent, and I’ll always be fighting for more ways to support our selfless Montana heroes,” said Daines.

Read the bill text HERE.

Daines’ office provided the following background:

The “Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act” would permanently secure the increase in federal wildland firefighter pay and establish a new pay scale for wildland firefighters. The bill also provides for a specialized premium pay for wildland firefighters who respond to certain prolonged fire incidents, and provides for paid rest and recuperation leave in conjunction with such responses.