Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals Act

IB Union Calendar No. 587 118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 2941 [Report No. 118–693] To require the Office of Management and Budget to revise the Standard Occupational Classification system to establish a separate code for direct support professionals, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 27, 2023 Mr. FITZPATRICK (for himself and Mr. MORELLE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 Additional sponsors: Ms. ROSS, Mr. PHILLIPS, Mr. GOLDEN of Maine, Mr. KIM of New Jersey, Mr. TRONE, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. MOLINARO, Ms. KUSTER, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. WILD, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. PELTOLA, Mr. LAWLER, Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania, Ms. CARAVEO, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. EVANS, Mr. DAVIS of North Carolina, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MRVAN, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. LUETKEMEYER, Mr. NICK- EL, Mr. CASTEN, Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. PORTER, Mr. RYAN, Ms. PETTERSEN, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mr. NEGUSE, Mr. TONKO, Mr. BOWMAN, Mr. CAREY, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mr. ESTES, Mr. COMER, Mr. SMUCKER, Mrs. KIM of California, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. CROW, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, and Mr. CARTER of Louisiana 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 [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 27, 2023] VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H2941.RH H2941 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 2941 RH A BILL To require the Office of Management and Budget to revise the Standard Occupational Classification system to es- tablish a separate code for direct support professionals, and for other purposes. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H2941.RH H2941 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 2941 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 ‘‘Recognizing the Role 4 of Direct Support Professionals Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds the following: 7 (1) Direct support professionals play a critical 8 role in the care provided to individuals with intellec- 9 tual and developmental disabilities. 10 (2) Providers of home- and community-based 11 services are experiencing difficulty hiring and retain- 12 ing direct support professionals, with a national 13 turnover rate of 43 percent, as identified in a 2021 14 study by the National Core Indicators, and full-time 15 vacancy rates increasing by 94 percent between 2019 16 and 2021. 17 (3) High turnover rates can lead to instability 18 for individuals receiving services, and this may result 19 in individuals not receiving enough personalized care 20 to help them reach their goals for independent living. 21 (4) A discrete occupational category for direct 22 support professionals will help States and the Federal 23 government— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2941.RH H2941 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 2941 RH (A) better interpret the shortage in the labor 1 market of direct support professionals; and 2 (B) collect data on the high turnover rate of 3 direct support professionals. 4 (5) The Standard Occupational Classification 5 system is designed and maintained solely for statis- 6 tical purposes, and is used by Federal statistical 7 agencies to classify workers and jobs into occupa- 8 tional categories for the purpose of collecting, calcu- 9 lating, analyzing, or disseminating data. 10 (6) Occupations in the Standard Occupational 11 Classification system are classified based on work per- 12 formed and, in some cases, on the skills, education, or 13 training needed to perform the work. 14 (7) Establishing a discrete occupational category 15 for direct support professionals will— 16 (A) correct an inaccurate representation in 17 the Standard Occupational Classification sys- 18 tem; 19 (B) recognize these professionals for the crit- 20 ical and often overlooked work that they perform 21 for the disabled community, which work is dif- 22 ferent than the work of a home health aide or a 23 personal care aide; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2941.RH H2941 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 2941 RH (C) better align the Standard Occupational 1 Classification system with related classification 2 systems. 3 SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF DIRECT SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL. 4 In this Act, the term ‘‘direct support professional’’ 5 means an individual who, in exchange for compensation, 6 provides services to an individual with an intellectual dis- 7 ability or a developmental disability (as defined in section 8 102 of the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill 9 of Rights Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 15002)) that promote such 10 individual’s independence, including— 11 (1) services that enhance independence and com- 12 munity inclusion for such individual, including trav- 13 eling with such individual, attending and assisting 14 such individual while visiting friends and family, 15 shopping, or socializing; 16 (2) services such as coaching and supporting 17 such individual in communicating needs, achieving 18 self-expression, pursuing personal goals, living inde- 19 pendently, and participating actively in employment 20 or voluntary roles in the community; 21 (3) services such as providing assistance with ac- 22 tivities of daily living (such as feeding, bathing, 23 toileting, and ambulation) and with tasks such as 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2941.RH H2941 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 2941 RH meal preparation, shopping, light housekeeping, and 1 laundry; or 2 (4) services that support such individual at 3 home, work, school, or any other community setting. 4 SEC. 4. REVISION OF STANDARD OCCUPATIONAL CLASSI- 5 FICATION SYSTEM. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of Man- 7 agement and Budget (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Direc- 8 tor’’) shall, as part of the first revision process of the Stand- 9 ard Occupational Classification system occurring after the 10 date of enactment of this Act, consider establishing a sepa- 11 rate code for direct support professionals as a subset of 12 healthcare support occupations. 13 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—If the Director decides 14 not to establish the separate code for direct support profes- 15 sionals described in subsection (a), the Director shall, not 16 later than 60 days after the Director announces in the Fed- 17 eral Register the final decision of the revision process de- 18 scribed in such subsection, submit to the Committee on 19 Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate 20 and the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the 21 House of Representatives a report explaining why such sep- 22 arate code was not established. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2941.RH H2941 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2941.RH H2941 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB Union Calendar No. 587 118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 2941 [Report No. 118–693] A BILL To require the Office of Management and Budget to revise the Standard Occupational Classifica- tion system to establish a separate code for direct support professionals, and for other purposes. SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com- mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H2941.RH H2941 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB