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H.R. 435 119th Congress House

Direct Hire To Fight Fires

Official title: To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide direct hire authority to appoint individuals to Federal wildland firefighting and firefighting support positio… Show full official titleShow less

Official title: To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide direct hire authority to appoint individuals to Federal wildland firefighting and firefighting support positions in the Forest Service or the Department of the Interior, and for other purposes.

Introduced: January 15, 2025 Introduced by: Darrell Issa Republican · California See on congress.gov
Government Operations and Politics Congressional oversightDepartment of AgricultureDepartment of the InteriorEmployee hiring
More subjectsShow fewer subjects
Federal officialsFiresFirst responders and emergency personnelForests, forestry, treesGovernment employee pay, benefits, personnel managementGovernment information and archives
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 Everywhere this bill has been 6 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Jan 8, 2026
Reported by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 119-432, Part I.
Jul 15, 2025
Ordered to be Reported by Unanimous Consent.
Jul 15, 2025
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
Apr 4, 2025
Referred to the Subcommittee on Forestry and Horticulture.
Jan 15, 2025
Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, and Agriculture, 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.
Jan 15, 2025
Introduced in House
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What's happening now January 8, 2026

Reported by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 119-432, Part I.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Direct Hire To Fight Fires

This bill provides permanent direct-hire authority to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior to fill wildland firefighter and firefighting support positions in the Forest Service and Interior agencies.

The bill also requires USDA and Interior to implement policies to recruit and retain wildland firefighters and related personnel, such as by streamlining the hiring process and reducing barriers for firefighters transferring between agencies.

Further, the bill requires USDA and Interior to annually report related data to Congress, including the number of firefighters needed for the coming year, the number of firefighting vacancies in each state, and existing barriers to filling such vacancies. The report must also be made available on a public website.

 Hearings & markups 1
 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 4
 Lobbying activity 7

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

Bodies those filers lobbied

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

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 Cosponsors 2
All 2 Republican 1 Independent 1
I
Kiley, Kevin
California · Jan 15, 2025
 R
Obernolte, Jay
California · Jan 15, 2025
Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 435: Direct Hire To Fight Fires. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-435/
MLA
"H.R. 435: Direct Hire To Fight Fires." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-435/.
Bluebook (legal)
H.R. 435, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-435/.
Markdown link
[H.R. 435: Direct Hire To Fight Fires](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-435/)
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