I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2354 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 1, 2021 

Ms. WILD (for herself and Mr. KELLER) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘EMS Counts Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

6 Congress finds the following: 

7 (1) Emergency Medical Services (in this Act re8 ferred to as ‘‘EMS’’) personnel provide a critical role 


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1 in emergency response. EMS consists of a diverse 

2 group of health care practitioners, such as para3 medics, emergency medical technicians (in this Act 

4 referred to as ‘‘EMTs’’), dual-role firefighter/EMTs, 

5 firefighter/paramedics, and volunteer personnel serv6 ing in each of such roles. 

7 (2) EMS is an integral component of the re8 sponse capacity of the United States to disasters 

9 and public health crises, such as outbreaks of infec10 tious diseases, bombings, mass shootings, earth11 quakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. EMS personnel 

12 respond to more than 22,000,000 emergency calls 

13 each year including strokes, heart attacks, cardiac 

14 arrest, and trauma. 

15 (3) The Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles in16 formation on the number of individuals working in 

17 roles across the entire United States workforce. The 

18 Bureau of Labor Statistics completes this work by 

19 maintaining the Standard Occupational Classifica20 tion system which classifies workers and jobs into 

21 occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, 

22 calculating, analyzing, or disseminating data. 

23 (4) The BLS fails to accurately count EMS 

24 practitioners because of its failure to include dualVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:52 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2354.IH H2354

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1 role firefighter/EMTs and firefighter/paramedics in 

2 their count of EMS personnel. 

3 (5) Accurately counting the EMS workforce is 

4 critical for government agencies in determining the 

5 needs of EMS agencies and practitioners. These 

6 data are also crucial for informing many aspects of 

7 policy including preparedness for natural disasters, 

8 public health emergencies, and acts of terrorism. 

9 SEC. 3. RECOGNITION OF DUAL-ROLE FIREFIGHTERS AS 

10 EMS PRACTITIONERS. 

11 Not later than 120 days after the date of the enact12 ment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall revise the 

13 broad description under the occupational series ‘‘33–2011 

14 Firefighters’’ of the 2018 Standard Occupational Classi15 fication System of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to in16 clude the following detailed occupations: 

17 (1) Firefighters. 

18 (2) Firefighter/EMTs. 

19 (3) Firefighter/Paramedics. 

20 (4) Firefighters, All Other. 

21 SEC. 4. REPORTS TO CONGRESS. 

22 Not later than 270 days after the enactment of this 

23 Act, the Secretary of Labor shall submit to Congress a 

24 report that details— 


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1 (1) the actions taken in 2015 to expand the 

2 definition ‘‘29–2040 Emergency Medical Technicians 

3 and Paramedics’’ to separately account for the num4 bers of EMTs and paramedics; and 

5 (2) the implementation of the revisions under 

6 section 3. 

Æ 


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