Support our Firefighters Act

Plain-English Summary

This bill would create a new type of paid leave specifically for federal employees who work as wildland firefighters. Under this proposal, these workers would be entitled to "rest and recuperation" leave — essentially, guaranteed time off to recover after periods of intense firefighting work. The bill would add this leave category to the existing federal employee leave system under U.S. law.

The bill directly affects federal wildland firefighters, who are the men and women deployed to fight fires in forests, grasslands, and other natural areas across the country. Wildland firefighting is physically and mentally demanding work, often requiring workers to spend extended periods in dangerous conditions with little downtime. This leave would give those employees dedicated recovery time separate from their regular vacation or sick leave.

Currently, the bill has been introduced in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which means it is in the early stages of the legislative process. The committee will decide whether to advance the bill for a full Senate vote. No official cost estimates or implementation details have been publicly released yet, so specifics about how much leave would be provided or exactly how it would be structured are not yet available from the bill's text description.