EMS Counts Act

IB Union Calendar No. 588 118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 2574 [Report No. 118–694] To require the Secretary of Labor to revise the Standard Occupational Classi- fication System to accurately count the number of emergency medical services practitioners in the United States. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 10, 2023 Ms. WILD (for herself, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, and Ms. NORTON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 Additional sponsors: Ms. PINGREE, Mr. MOLINARO, Mr. GOLDMAN of New York, and Mr. FITZPATRICK SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:26 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H2574.RH H2574 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 2574 RH [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] [For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on April 10, 2023] A BILL To require the Secretary of Labor to revise the Standard Occupational Classification System to accurately count the number of emergency medical services practitioners in the United States. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:26 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H2574.RH H2574 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 2574 RH Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘EMS Counts Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 5 Congress finds the following: 6 (1) Emergency medical services (in this Act re- 7 ferred to as ‘‘EMS’’) personnel provide a critical role 8 in emergency response. EMS consists of a diverse 9 group of health care practitioners, such as para- 10 medics, emergency medical technicians (in this Act 11 referred to as ‘‘EMTs’’), dual-role firefighter/EMTs, 12 firefighter/paramedics, and volunteer personnel serv- 13 ing in each of such roles. 14 (2) EMS is an integral component of the re- 15 sponse capacity of the United States to disasters and 16 public health crises, such as outbreaks of infectious 17 diseases, bombings, mass shootings, earthquakes, tor- 18 nadoes, and hurricanes. EMS personnel respond to 19 more than 22,000,000 emergency calls each year in- 20 cluding strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrest, and 21 trauma. 22 (3) The Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles in- 23 formation on the number of individuals working in 24 roles across the entire United States workforce. The 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:26 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2574.RH H2574 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 2574 RH Bureau of Labor Statistics completes this work by 1 maintaining the Standard Occupational Classifica- 2 tion system which classifies workers and jobs into oc- 3 cupational categories for the purpose of collecting, cal- 4 culating, analyzing, or disseminating data. 5 (4) The BLS fails to accurately count EMS 6 practitioners because of its failure to include dual-role 7 firefighter/EMTs and firefighter/paramedics in their 8 count of EMS personnel. 9 (5) Accurately counting the EMS workforce is 10 critical for government agencies in determining the 11 needs of EMS agencies and practitioners. These data 12 are also crucial for informing many aspects of policy 13 including preparedness for natural disasters, public 14 health emergencies, and acts of terrorism. 15 SEC. 3. REVISION OF STANDARD OCCUPATIONAL CLASSI- 16 FICATION SYSTEM. 17 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of Man- 18 agement and Budget (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Direc- 19 tor’’) shall, as part of the first revision process of the Stand- 20 ard Occupational Classification system occurring after the 21 date of enactment of this Act, consider establishing a sepa- 22 rate code, as a subset of firefighter occupations, for each 23 of the following: 24 (1) Firefighters. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:26 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2574.RH H2574 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 2574 RH (2) Firefighter/EMTs. 1 (3) Firefighter/Paramedics. 2 (4) Firefighters, All Other. 3 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—If the Director decides 4 not to establish the separate codes described in subsection 5 (a), the Director shall, not later than 60 days after the Di- 6 rector announces in the Federal Register the final decision 7 of the revision process described in such subsection, submit 8 to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 9 Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Education and 10 the Workforce of the House of Representatives a report ex- 11 plaining why such separate codes were not established. 12 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:26 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2574.RH H2574 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB Union Calendar No. 588 118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 2574 [Report No. 118–694] A BILL To require the Secretary of Labor to revise the Standard Occupational Classification System to accurately count the number of emergency med- ical services practitioners in the United States. SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com- mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:26 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H2574.RH H2574 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB