Personnel Management Office
The Office of Personnel Management is issuing a final rule to add prescribed (planned) wildland fire duties as covered activities triggering payment of Hazardous Duty Pay (HDP) for General Schedule (GS) employees and Environmental Differential Pay (EDP) for Federal Wage System (FWS) employees. The final rule authorizes a 25 percent differential for GS and FWS employees participating as a member of a firefighting crew engaged in activities on the fireline directly involving the implementation and control of prescribed wildland fires.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Office of Personnel Management 5 CFR Parts 532 and 550 [Docket ID: OPM-2026-0199] RIN 3206-AO76 AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Office of Personnel Management is issuing a final rule to add prescribed (planned) wildland fire duties as covered activities triggering payment of Hazardous Duty Pay (HDP) for General Schedule (GS) employees and Environmental Differential Pay (EDP) for Federal Wage System (FWS) employees. The final rule authorizes a 25 percent differential for GS and FWS employees participating as a member of a firefighting crew engaged in activities on the fireline directly involving the implementation and control of prescribed wildland fires. DATES: Effective date: This regulation is effective September 14, 2026. Applicability date: This change applies on the first day of the first pay period beginning on or after September 14, 2026. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ana Paunoiu, by telephone at (202) 606-2858 or by email at paypolicy@opm.gov . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Digest of Public Comments On April 14, 2026, OPM issued a proposed rule ( 91 FR 19081 ) to add prescribed wildland fire activities as new HDP and EDP categories under 5 CFR parts 550 and 532 . The proposed rule had a 60-day comment period ending June 15, 2026. OPM received 92 comments from Federal employees, one labor organization, one public sector organization, and one private sector organization. Public comments, with a few exceptions, strongly support…
Other Federal Register documents from the same docket.
Citation: 91 FR 52479
