Direct Hire To Fight Fires

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3499 To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide direct hire authority to appoint individuals to Federal wildland firefighting and firefighting sup- port positions in the Forest Service or the Department of the Interior, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 18, 2023 Mr. ISSA (for himself and Mr. LAMALFA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and in addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, and Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com- mittee concerned A BILL To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide direct hire authority to appoint individuals to Federal wildland firefighting and firefighting support positions in the For- est Service or the Department of the Interior, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Direct Hire To Fight 4 Fires’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:57 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3499.IH H3499 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 3499 IH SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 Congress finds the following: 2 (1) Veterans are an appreciated and sought 3 after population for positions within the Forest 4 Service and in the positions contained in this Act. 5 (2) Veterans deserve expedited hiring and em- 6 ployment. 7 (3) In fiscal year 2020, the use of the Fire Di- 8 rect Hire Authority (‘‘DHA’’) was on average 31 9 days compared to non-use of the Fire DHA at 51 10 days and overall Forest Service (‘‘FS’’) hiring at 65 11 days. 12 (4) In fiscal year 2021, the use of the Fire 13 DHA was on average 40 days compared to non-use 14 of Fire DHA at 94 days and overall FS hiring at 15 73 days. 16 (5) In fiscal year 2022, the use of the Fire 17 DHA was on average 58 days compared to non-use 18 of Fire DHA at 96 days and overall FS hiring at 19 104 days. 20 (6) In fiscal year 2020, the number of days 21 from authorization to employee entry on duty aver- 22 aged 55 days with the use of the Fire DHA com- 23 pared to non-use of the Fire DHA at 103 days and 24 overall FS hiring at 92 days. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:57 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3499.IH H3499 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 3499 IH (7) In fiscal year 2021, the number of days 1 from authorization to employee entry on duty aver- 2 aged 57 days with the use of the Fire DHA com- 3 pared to non-use of the Fire DHA at 105 days and 4 overall FS hiring at 94 days. 5 (8) In fiscal year 2022, the number of days 6 from authorization to employee entry on duty aver- 7 aged 101 days with the use of the Fire DHA com- 8 pared to non-use of the Fire DHA at 139 days and 9 overall FS hiring at 146 days. 10 SEC. 3. DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY TO APPOINT INDIVID- 11 UALS TO FEDERAL WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING 12 AND FIREFIGHTING SUPPORT POSITIONS IN 13 THE FOREST SERVICE OR THE DEPARTMENT 14 OF THE INTERIOR. 15 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 96 of title 5, United 16 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol- 17 lowing: 18 ‘‘§ 9603. Direct hire authority to appoint individuals 19 to Federal wildland firefighting and fire- 20 fighting support positions in Forest Serv- 21 ice and Department of the Interior 22 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture 23 and the Secretary of the Interior may appoint, without 24 regard to the provisions of sections 3309 through 3318 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:42 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3499.IH H3499 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 3499 IH of title 5, United States Code (other than sections 3303 1 and 3328 of such chapter), and part 211 and part 337 2 of subpart A of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, quali- 3 fied candidates to any position described in subsection (b) 4 in the Forest Service or the Department of the Interior, 5 respectively. 6 ‘‘(b) POSITIONS.—A position described in this sub- 7 section is any Federal wildland firefighting position, or 8 any position in support of such firefighting position, with- 9 in any of the following occupational series (or any suc- 10 cessor series): 11 ‘‘(1) Forestry Technician Series, GS–0462. 12 ‘‘(2) Aircraft Operation Series, GS–2181. 13 ‘‘(3) Miscellaneous Administration and Pro- 14 gram Series, GS–0301, that supports firefighting 15 and is eligible for primary or secondary firefighter 16 retirement coverage. 17 ‘‘(4) General Natural Resources Management 18 and Biological Sciences Series, GS–0401, that sup- 19 ports firefighting and is eligible for primary or sec- 20 ondary firefighter retirement coverage. 21 ‘‘(5) Aviation Management Specialist Series, 22 GS–2101. 23 ‘‘(6) Engineering Equipment Operator, WG, 24 WL, or WS–5716, that supports firefighting and is 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:42 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3499.IH H3499 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 3499 IH eligible for primary or secondary firefighter retire- 1 ment coverage. 2 ‘‘(7) Dispatching Series, GS–2151, that sup- 3 ports firefighting and is eligible for primary or sec- 4 ondary firefighter retirement coverage. 5 ‘‘(8) Equipment Specialist, GS–1670. 6 ‘‘(9) Any additional occupational series devel- 7 oped specifically for wildland firefighting.’’. 8 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 9 for such chapter is amended by adding after the item re- 10 lating to section 9602 the following: 11 ‘‘9603. Direct hire authority to appoint individuals to Federal wildland fire- fighting and firefighting support positions in Forest Service and Department of the Interior.’’. SEC. 4. STREAMLINING AND TRANSPARENCY IN FEDERAL 12 WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING HIRING AT THE 13 FOREST SERVICE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF 14 THE INTERIOR. 15 (a) STREAMLINED HIRING.—Not later than 1 year 16 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries, 17 in consultation with the Director of the Office of Per- 18 sonnel Management, shall implement policies to recruit 19 and retain wildland firefighters that— 20 (1) reduce the amount of time required to hire 21 wildland firefighters and wildland firefighting sup- 22 port personnel; 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:57 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3499.IH H3499 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 3499 IH (2) address and eliminate redundancies in the 1 Federal hiring process for wildland firefighters and 2 wildland firefighting support personnel; 3 (3) streamline the process for hiring wildland 4 firefighters and wildland firefighting support per- 5 sonnel who were employed by the agencies in prior 6 years; and 7 (4) reduce barriers for wildland firefighters 8 transferring between agencies. 9 (b) TRANSPARENCY.— 10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning 1 year after the 11 date of the enactment of this Act and annually 12 thereafter, the Secretaries shall each submit a report 13 to the relevant Congressional Committees that in- 14 cludes the information described in paragraph (2) no 15 later than February 1st of each calendar year. 16 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—As part of the report 17 submitted under paragraph (1), the Secretaries shall 18 include information regarding— 19 (A) the number of wildland firefighters 20 and wildland firefighting support personnel the 21 agency anticipates it will need for that calendar 22 year, delineated by position; 23 (B) the number of hiring events the agency 24 is planning to hold that calendar year; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:57 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3499.IH H3499 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 3499 IH (C) the number of wildland firefighters and 1 wildland firefighting support personnel cur- 2 rently employed by the agency, delineated by 3 position; 4 (D) the number of wildland firefighting va- 5 cancies by State; 6 (E) any barriers the agency is facing to 7 meet the hiring goal outlined in subsection (a); 8 (F) the implementation of the direct hiring 9 authority provided in section 3 of this Act; 10 (G) the implementation of the streamlined 11 hiring policies developed under subsection (a); 12 and 13 (H) recommendations to Congress to fur- 14 ther improve the recruitment and retention of 15 wildland firefighters and wildland firefighting 16 support personnel. 17 (3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The Secretaries 18 shall each annually publish the report submitted 19 under paragraph (1) on a publicly available website. 20 (4) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 21 (A) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ 22 means— 23 (i) the Forest Service, with respect to 24 National Forest System lands; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:57 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3499.IH H3499 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •HR 3499 IH (ii) the Department of the Interior, 1 with respect to lands under the jurisdiction 2 of the Secretary of the Interior. 3 (B) RELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT- 4 TEES.—The term ‘‘relevant Congressional Com- 5 mittees’’ means— 6 (i) the Committees on Agriculture and 7 Natural Resources of the House of Rep- 8 resentatives; and 9 (ii) the Committees on Agriculture, 10 Nutrition, and Forestry and Energy and 11 Natural Resources of the Senate. 12 (C) SECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secre- 13 taries’’ means the Secretary of Agriculture and 14 the Secretary of the Interior. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:57 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3499.IH H3499 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB