LAS VEGAS (KLAS)– Nevada senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev, and Jacky Rosen, D-
Nev, are urging the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to implement a wildland firefighter job classification.
On Friday, the Nevada senators joined Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, in a letter to OPM calling for them to swiftly implement provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to increase federal firefighter recruitment and retention.
This comes after a devesting 2021, which saw the longest and most destructive wildfire season on record.
“We write to urge you to swiftly implement the requirement for federal agencies to create a distinct ‘wildland firefighter’ occupational series and to expedite the delivery of the $600 million in supplemental pay for wildland firefighters as provided in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA),” the Senators wrote in a news release.
Both Cortez Masto and Rosen have taken steps to improve Nevada’s wildfire risk, including the introduction of the National Wildland Fire Risk Reduction Program Act, which improves sensing technologies toward wildfires and standardizes data collection to improve national responses to these disasters.
Read More: Nevada senators call for swift classification of new federal wildland firefighter job