January 2006

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

The first half of the 109th congress recently came to a close with partisan acrimony and not much accomplished. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Often, members of congress move a greater volume of legislation in the second half which of course is an election year.

Our legislation to provide federal wildland firefighters with portal to portal pay and include their hazardous duty pay as base pay for retirement purposes, remains alive and well. Over the course of the last several months, congressional staff has been working with the leadership of the House of Representatives in an effort to develop a strategy for moving our bill.

This requires not only more patience on our part, but an even stronger commitment to educating members of congress on our issues. However let’s put this in perspective. One of the most senior and powerful members of the Senate has been working for 25 years for legislation that was once again defeated at the end of the year.

The opportunities in the second half of the 109th congress to move our legislation are predicated on the work the staff in DC has already done with the leadership and re-election year politics. Simultaneously, we continue our efforts to increase the bipartisan numbers of cosponsors which ultimately demonstrates to the leadership that the bill has significant support.

Having a Senate bill introduced leads to even more opportunities. I have been personally dismayed at the lack of progress in securing a senate bill. Whether it has been the poor response from Sen. Feinstein’s (D-CA) staff or simply the ideological differences between the Senate & the House, it will be one of our top priorities during the early part of the 2nd half of the session to seek a senate version of H.R. 408.

We must also take into consideration the role politics plays in all of this. The recent fall of House majority leader DeLay, the indictment of lobbyist Abramhoff, the resignation of one of our cosponsors Randy “Duke” Cunningham as a result of bribery charges all throw the congressional session in turmoil. No doubt with the election year forthcoming, Democrats will seek to suggest that all Republicans are crooks and unethical and who knows what the Republicans will do to shoot back.

The best course of action is to continue to develop relationships on Capitol Hill with those representing both sides of the aisle and make it clear to them that we expect them to do their jobs and take action on the issues that are important to us.

As a result of our membership conference, a number of attendees demonstrated interest in becoming more involved in the political process. Meetings with members of congress in their districts will be coordinated for our members in those areas.

During the first few months of this year, the FWFSA plans to earn commitments from Congress to pursue hazard pay for our firefighters while on prescribed burns and to push for basic health care for temporary firefighters. There are several members of congress who have indicated a cursory interest in doing this for us. Discussions will be held as to whether to make these issues separate and distinct from H.R. 408, or perhaps amend the current language to include such provisions.

Caution would lead us to believe that given the amount of work done to convince congress that H.R. 408 is “revenue neutral” and can be paid for within existing land-management agency budgets without additional appropriations; we should leave that bill intact as is. Needless to say, we will rely on the expertise of those in Washington for guidance.

The office of Personnel Management (OPM) has responded to Congressman Jon Porter’s (R-NV) call for classification reform by indicating that it’s staff “had done some preliminary work looking at the current classification of wildland firefighters and researched past classification reviews.’ The agency is planning on performing occupational audits of current employees and should have some preliminary findings end of the Second Quarter of 2006. OPM may need to do additional audits to ensure we capture what goes on in the “fire season.”

What the heck does all that mean you ask? Not much more than typical agency bureaucratic rhetoric which is why we’ve informed Rep. Porter’s staff that we’ve been here before with OPM and to not let them off the hook or allow them to dazzle congress with a bunch of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo.

The data we have provided Rep. Porter and his subcommittee clearly outlines the long-standing issue of proper classification and the need to finally address the year-long fire related multi-taskings you perform in the 21st century.

This legislative update column will be updated as information changes or becomes available. As always, any questions can be addressed to Business Manager Casey Judd via e-mail or phone.

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