May 12, 2022 3:20 a.m.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has joined colleagues from both parties in urging federal officials to establish a special pay rate for federal wildland firefighters in Oregon and nationwide that would address urgent staffing shortages in the wildland firefighting force.

A letter from a group of lawmakers urges Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja, to take necessary steps to avert the critical staffing shortages. The letter said, “By using existing authority to establish a special pay rate for federal wildland firefighters, we can directly address the recruitment and retention crisis, and ensure that the “wildland firefighter” occupational series reflects the professional capabilities of our wildland firefighters”.

Lawmakers said years of low pay and other issues have hollowed out the federal wildland firefighting workforce to the point that fire officials last year could not fill an unprecedented 1,800 interagency requests for wildland firefighting crews, and more than 1,900 requests for fire engines.

Members of Congress from both chambers signed onto the letter. The full document is linked: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/WFF%20Pay%20Letter_051022.pdf