US House passes bill raising base pay and incident response pay for federal wildland firefighters.

The US House has passed a bill that raises the base pay and incident response pay for thousands of federal wildland firefighters. The Interior and Environment Appropriations bill includes a 42% increase in base pay, with higher jumps for those lower on the pay scale, and a $9,000 cap on incident response pay. Advocates hope this raise will help combat workforce depletion due to affordability issues.