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HR 5619
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

Federal Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act

To ensure continuity of pay and allowances for Federal firefighters and protect Federal firefighters from reductions in force in the event of a lapse in appropriations, and for other purposes.

Introduced Sep 30, 2025

Latest action (Sep 30, 2025) Referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 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 committee concerned.

Referred to
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Appropriations Committee
Policy area
Economics and Public Finance
Issues
Labor & Wages

Summary

The Federal Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act would ensure that federal firefighters continue to receive pay and allowances during government shutdowns. The bill would appropriate funds for fiscal year 2026 to cover firefighter salaries during any lapse in appropriations. Additionally, the bill would prohibit the removal of federal firefighters from the civil service due to reductions in force during government shutdowns. These provisions would remain in effect until regular appropriations are enacted or January 1, 2027, whichever is earlier.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
41 cosponsors

Actions (2)
  1. Sep 30, 2025 Referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 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 committee concerned. · house
  2. Sep 30, 2025 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 759 — Federal Firefighters Families First Act · Introduced Nov 20, 2025 · Cong. 119 69%
  • S 3168 — Shutdown Fairness Act · Introduced Nov 10, 2025 · Cong. 119 69%
  • S 135 — Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2025 · Introduced Jan 16, 2025 · Cong. 119 68%
  • S 3039 — True Shutdown Fairness Act · Introduced Oct 23, 2025 · Cong. 119 68%
  • HR 5708 — Federal Employees Civil Relief Act · Introduced Oct 8, 2025 · Cong. 119 66%
  • HR 5801 — Shutdown Fairness Act · Introduced Oct 21, 2025 · Cong. 119 66%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Sep 30, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 30, 2025

Ms. Bynum (for herself, Mr. Neguse, Mr. Whitesides, Ms. Ansari, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Mr. Deluzio, Mrs. Dingell, Ms. Elfreth, Mr. Fields, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Mr. Horsford, Ms. Hoyle of Oregon, Ms. Leger Fernandez, Ms. McClellan, Mr. Peters, Ms. Ross, Ms. Salinas, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Stanton, Mr. Swalwell, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Thompson of California, and Ms. Schrier) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 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 committee concerned

A BILL

To ensure continuity of pay and allowances for Federal firefighters and protect Federal firefighters from reductions in force in the event of a lapse in appropriations, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Federal Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act”.

SEC. 2. CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS FOR PAY AND ALLOWANCES FOR FIREFIGHTERS.

(a) In General.—There are hereby appropriated for fiscal year 2026, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for any period during which interim or full-year appropriations for fiscal year 2026 are not in effect, such sums as are necessary to provide pay and allowances to Federal firefighters.

(b) Termination.—Appropriations and funds made available and authority granted pursuant to this section shall be available until the earlier of—

(1) the date of the enactment of an appropriation (including a continuing appropriation) for any purpose for which amounts are made available under subsection (a);

(2) the date of the enactment of the applicable regular or continuing appropriations resolution or other Act without any appropriation for such purpose; or

(3) January 1, 2027.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON REDUCTIONS IN FORCE OF FIREFIGHTERS DURING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, during any period in which there is a lapse in discretionary appropriations, no Federal firefighter may be removed from the civil service due to a reduction in force.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) Civil service, executive agency; military department.— The terms “civil service”, “Executive agency”, and “military department” have the meanings given such term in sections 2101, 105, and 102, respectively, of title 5, United States Code.

(2) Federal firefighter.—The term “Federal firefighter” means an employee of an Executive agency or military department, the duties of whose position are primarily to perform work directly connected with the control and extinguishment of fires. <all>

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