II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1115 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 30, 2023 

Mr. CASEY (for himself and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions 

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 of 

5 2023’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Emergency medical services (referred to in 

2 this Act as ‘‘EMS’’) personnel provide a critical role 

3 in emergency response. The EMS workforce consists 

4 of a diverse group of health care practitioners, in5 cluding— 

6 (A) paramedics, emergency medical techni7 cians (referred to in this Act as ‘‘EMTs’’), and 

8 dual-role firefighter/EMTs and firefighter/para9 medics; and 

10 (B) volunteer personnel serving in each of 

11 the roles described in subparagraph (A). 

12 (2) EMS is an integral component of the re13 sponse capacity of the United States to disasters 

14 and public health crises, such as outbreaks of infec15 tious diseases, bombings, mass shootings, earth16 quakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. EMS personnel 

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

18 each year including strokes, heart attacks, cardiac 

19 arrest, and trauma. 

20 (3) The Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles in21 formation on the number of individuals working in 

22 roles across the entire United States workforce. The 

23 Bureau of Labor Statistics completes this work by 

24 maintaining the Standard Occupational Classifica25 tion system, which classifies workers and jobs into 


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1 occupational categories for the purposes of col2 lecting, calculating, analyzing, and disseminating 

3 data. 

4 (4) The Bureau of Labor Statistics fails to ac5 curately count EMS practitioners because of its fail6 ure to include dual-role firefighter/EMTs and fire7 fighter/paramedics in their count of EMS personnel. 

8 (5) Accurately counting the EMS workforce is 

9 critical for government agencies in determining the 

10 needs of EMS agencies and practitioners. These 

11 data are also crucial for informing many aspects of 

12 policy, including preparedness for natural disasters, 

13 public health emergencies, and acts of terrorism. 

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

15 EMS PRACTITIONERS. 

16 Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment 

17 of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall revise the broad 

18 description under the occupational series ‘‘33–2011 Fire19 fighters’’ of the 2018 Standard Occupational Classifica20 tion System of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to include 

21 the following detailed occupations: 

22 (1) Firefighters. 

23 (2) Firefighter/EMTs. 

24 (3) Firefighter/Paramedics. 

25 (4) Firefighters, All Other. 


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1 SEC. 4. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

2 Not later than 270 days after the date of enactment 

3 of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall submit to Con4 gress a report that describes— 

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

6 definition ‘‘29–2040 Emergency Medical Technicians 

7 and Paramedics’’ to separately account for the num8 bers of EMTs and paramedics; and 

9 (2) the implementation of the revisions under 

10 section 3. 

Æ 


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