Public documents do not provide a line‑by‑line list of every Interior law‑enforcement job title and grade. Interior and OPM state that the 3.8% increase applies to all positions officially designated as law‑enforcement officers in these Interior components: Bureau of Indian Affairs – Office of Justice Services; Bureau of Land Management – Law Enforcement; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Office of Law Enforcement and Division of Refuge Law Enforcement; National Park Service – Law Enforcement Ranger Program; U.S. Park Police; and the Office of the Secretary – Office of Law Enforcement and Security. Within those organizations, the increase is delivered through OPM special‑rate pay tables that cover the relevant law‑enforcement occupational categories and General Schedule grades OPM has approved, so any employee in a covered law‑enforcement position—regardless of grade—receives the 3.8% increase, subject to statutory pay caps.
The 3.8% increase is being implemented as a special salary rate adjustment, not as a separate locality‑pay change. Executive Order 14368 directs the OPM Director to consider providing up to a total 3.8% increase (including the general GS raise) for certain federal civilian law‑enforcement personnel using OPM’s special‑rate authority under 5 U.S.C. 5305, and OPM’s guidance states it is creating special salary‑rate tables for law‑enforcement positions to provide roughly an additional 2.8‑percentage‑point increase on top of the 1% 2026 base GS raise.
For Interior law‑enforcement officers, the increase takes effect on 11 January 2026, which OPM identifies as the effective date for the new law‑enforcement special‑rate tables and which Interior cites as the effective date for the 3.8% law‑enforcement pay increase. Officers will see their basic (special‑rate) pay rise beginning with the pay period that starts 11 January 2026, so the first paycheck that covers hours worked on or after that date will reflect the higher amount.
Executive Order 14368, titled “Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay,” is a presidential order issued by President Donald J. Trump on 18 December 2025. It sets the 2026 pay schedules for major federal pay systems (including the General Schedule, Foreign Service, and certain Veterans Health Administration and Executive Schedule rates) and directs the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to assess whether to provide, via special‑salary‑rate authority, up to a total 3.8% increase (inclusive of the general increase) for certain federal civilian law‑enforcement personnel.
OPM states that, to implement Executive Order 14368, it used its special‑salary‑rate authority under 5 U.S.C. 5305 and consulted with agencies including the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and the Interior to identify “mission‑critical” frontline law‑enforcement categories. OPM indicates it applied its standard special‑rate criteria (recruitment and retention problems, labor‑market pay gaps, work location and conditions, and alignment with the administration’s border‑security and public‑safety priorities) and then established special‑rate tables for those law‑enforcement categories. Interior’s press release reflects the outcome of that process by listing the specific Interior offices and bureaus that OPM identified as covered for the 3.8% law‑enforcement increase.
Interior and OPM have not published a public estimate of the total cost of applying the 3.8% law‑enforcement pay increase within the Department of the Interior or a detailed explanation of how that cost will be funded, so the projected cost and funding breakdown are not available from current public information.