US wildland firefighter pay threatened by Republican feud in Congress
Source: Reuters
US wildland firefighter pay threatened by Republican feud in Congress
By David Morgan
August 23, 2023 6:12 AM EDT Updated 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - U.S. federal wildland firefighters are facing a huge potential pay cut this autumn that lawmakers in Washington warn could cause thousands to walk off the job, due to a feud among Republicans in Congress over federal spending.
That could mean dire consequences for 16 U.S. states, mostly in the West and Southwest, where about 16,600 firefighters were battling more than 90 large fires across nearly 630,000 acres as of Tuesday, National Interagency Fire Center data show.
The standoff between lawmakers continues as the Hawaiian island of Maui struggles to recover from a massive blaze that killed at least 115 people and Canada's British Columbia province is also being ravaged by fire.
"We're going to have these people out fighting wildfires for us in this country. And their pay could be cut by 50%," said Representative Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-wildland-firefighter-pay-threatened-by-republican-feud-congress-2023-08-23/
Non-paywalled link: https://news.yahoo.com/us-wildland-firefighter-pay-threatened-101256143.html
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