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 Classification 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 


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•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. 


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•HR 2574 RH

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 

9 in emergency response. EMS consists of a diverse 

10 group of health care practitioners, such as para11 medics, emergency medical technicians (in this Act 

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

13 firefighter/paramedics, and volunteer personnel serv14 ing in each of such roles. 

15 (2) EMS is an integral component of the re16 sponse capacity of the United States to disasters and 

17 public health crises, such as outbreaks of infectious 

18 diseases, bombings, mass shootings, earthquakes, tor19 nadoes, and hurricanes. EMS personnel respond to 

20 more than 22,000,000 emergency calls each year in21 cluding strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrest, and 

22 trauma. 

23 (3) The Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles in24 formation on the number of individuals working in 

25 roles across the entire United States workforce. The 


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1 Bureau of Labor Statistics completes this work by 

2 maintaining the Standard Occupational Classifica3 tion system which classifies workers and jobs into oc4 cupational categories for the purpose of collecting, cal5 culating, analyzing, or disseminating data. 

6 (4) The BLS fails to accurately count EMS 

7 practitioners because of its failure to include dual-role 

8 firefighter/EMTs and firefighter/paramedics in their 

9 count of EMS personnel. 

10 (5) Accurately counting the EMS workforce is 

11 critical for government agencies in determining the 

12 needs of EMS agencies and practitioners. These data 

13 are also crucial for informing many aspects of policy 

14 including preparedness for natural disasters, public 

15 health emergencies, and acts of terrorism. 

16 SEC. 3. REVISION OF STANDARD OCCUPATIONAL CLASSI17 FICATION SYSTEM. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of Man19 agement and Budget (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Direc20 tor’’) shall, as part of the first revision process of the Stand21 ard Occupational Classification system occurring after the 

22 date of enactment of this Act, consider establishing a sepa23 rate code, as a subset of firefighter occupations, for each 

24 of the following: 

25 (1) Firefighters. 


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1 (2) Firefighter/EMTs. 

2 (3) Firefighter/Paramedics. 

3 (4) Firefighters, All Other. 

4 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—If the Director decides 

5 not to establish the separate codes described in subsection 

6 (a), the Director shall, not later than 60 days after the Di7 rector announces in the Federal Register the final decision 

8 of the revision process described in such subsection, submit 

9 to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 

10 Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Education and 

11 the Workforce of the House of Representatives a report ex12 plaining why such separate codes were not established. 


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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 

ical services practitioners in the United States. accurately count the number of emergency medStandard Occupational Classification System to 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 


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