Congress honors wildland firefighters with gold medal for sacrifice
S. 142 — Wildland Firefighters Congressional Gold Medal Act · Filed by John Barrasso (R-WY) · 32 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 16, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill authorizes Congress to award a single Congressional Gold Medal to wildland firefighters as a group, honoring their dangerous work protecting forests, communities, and lives. The medal will be designed by the Treasury Secretary in consultation with the National Interagency Fire Center and displayed there; the Treasury may also strike and sell bronze duplicates to recover costs.
Why we flagged it
This is a straightforward Congressional Gold Medal bill recognizing wildland firefighters' service and sacrifice. It contains no policy changes, regulatory provisions, or financial giveaways—only authorization for a single medal and cost-neutral duplicate sales.
Who it affects
The bill honors a group of public servants who face extraordinary danger and sacrifice protecting lives and property. It imposes no new costs on citizens (medal costs are offset by bronze duplicate sales) and creates no restrictions on rights or protections. Public recognition of essential workers strengthens civic accountability and morale.
Named in the bill
U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Interagency Fire Center, U.S. Mint, Treasury Department
Where it stands
32 cosponsors: 17 Republicans, 14 Democrats, 1 Independents.
- Jan 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 16, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (text: CR S231-232)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $0 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
John Barrasso, the sponsor, reported $408,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- United Aerial Firefighters Association — $0 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 8, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,640 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 8, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress honors wildland firefighters with gold medal for sacrifice” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s142 Report an error
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