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2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB5424
HB5424 replaces a general limit on compensation for designated volunteer or auxiliary firefighters with a numerical ceiling.
Official caption: Relating to volunteer firefighter compensation limits.
Official report lists House author(s): Bonnen, Leo Wilson. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB5424 replaces a general limit on compensation for designated volunteer or auxiliary firefighters with a numerical ceiling.
- Scope matters: this amendment is in Government Code Chapter 419's personnel provisions.
- The prior subsection prohibited paying designated volunteers to the extent they would be considered fully paid fire protection personnel.
What does it do?
HB5424 replaces a general limit on compensation for designated volunteer or auxiliary firefighters with a numerical ceiling. In a calendar year, a covered fire department may not provide compensation, reimbursement or benefits exceeding 20% of the highest total compensation paid to full-time fire protection personnel by a local government in the department’s county. If no local government in that county pays full-time fire protection personnel, the comparison instead uses an adjacent county. It is a maximum, not a required payment or guaranteed raise. Final law, Section 1.
Scope matters: this amendment is in Government Code Chapter 419’s personnel provisions. That subchapter defines a “fire department” as a local-government department staffed by permanent, full-time local-government employees and organized to prevent or suppress fires. It distinguishes full-time fire protection personnel, part-time employees and designated volunteer or auxiliary firefighters. The bill should not be read as an unqualified pay rule for every independent volunteer organization. Statutory context, Sections 419.021 and 419.0322.
The prior subsection prohibited paying designated volunteers to the extent they would be considered fully paid fire protection personnel. HB5424 replaces that wording; it does not itself settle federal wage-law classification or promise an exemption from other applicable laws. The governor signed it June 20, 2025, but its express effective date is September 1, 2026. Final law, both sections; official history.
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill and House committee report proposed a 20% ceiling based on full-time personnel’s total compensation “in the adjacent area.” The one indexed floor amendment, offered by Bonnen on third reading and adopted May 10, replaced that wording with the highest total compensation paid by a local government in the same county, using an adjacent county only when the home county has no local government paying full-time fire protection personnel. It also repositioned the reference to the individual volunteer or auxiliary firefighter. All three amendment instructions survive in the House-passed, Senate-report and final texts. Introduced; House report; complete amendment; amendment index.
The September 2026 start date was already in the introduced bill; it was not a later delay. No Senate floor amendment is indexed. House-passed text; Senate report; text-version index.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Covered departments and their designated volunteers gain a more specific benchmark than the old fully-paid-personnel standard. Departments must identify the relevant local compensation figure and keep annual compensation, reimbursement and benefits within the ceiling. A volunteer whose existing package exceeds the new cap could face adjustments; the sources do not establish how many people are affected or whether any particular person gains or loses pay.
The May 14 engrossed-version fiscal note anticipates no state fiscal implication and no significant local-government fiscal implication. The April 21 introduced note reaches the same conclusions. Neither gives a dollar amount, multi-year cost table or estimate for an individual firefighter; the act does not appropriate funds. Applicable fiscal note; introduced note.
Review boundary: both final sections, history, all five indexed text versions, all three instructions in the sole indexed amendment and its disposition, both fiscal notes, and date-specific Sections 419.021 and 419.0322 were read and compared. No individual department’s compensation calculation or later implementation rule was audited.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
