Wyden Wants To Pay Firefighters More

So far, more than one million acres have burned across Oregon, and it’s not even September.  U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said he gets regular updates from fire managers.

“They use terms like ‘this is a war.’," the Oregon democrat said.  "And the first time one of them said that, I go, ‘what’s the war all about? Who’s it against?’ And they said, ‘we’re up against all this dead and dying material on the forest floor that’s just a magnet for fire.’” 

Wyden added more needs to be done to increase the number of federal firefighters.

“We need to pay them a competitive wage. I see help wanted signs and the help wanted signs are always offering pay higher than firefighters get. So, that’s a big factor.”

Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer also wants to stabilize firefighter compensation.  She says an Appropriations Bill recently passed by the House would provide more than $330 Million to increase firefighter pay and permanently raise their pay scale.  That bill now heads to the U.S. Senate.

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