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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2574 Reported in House (RH)]

<DOC>

                                                 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
 [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.

 

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``EMS Counts Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Emergency medical services (in this Act referred to as 
        ``EMS'') personnel provide a critical role in emergency 
        response. EMS consists of a diverse group of health care 
        practitioners, such as paramedics, emergency medical 
        technicians (in this Act referred to as ``EMTs''), dual-role 
        firefighter/EMTs, firefighter/paramedics, and volunteer 
        personnel serving in each of such roles.
            (2) EMS is an integral component of the response capacity 
        of the United States to disasters and public health crises, 
        such as outbreaks of infectious diseases, bombings, mass 
        shootings, earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. EMS 
        personnel respond to more than 22,000,000 emergency calls each 
        year including strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrest, and 
        trauma.
            (3) The Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles information on 
        the number of individuals working in roles across the entire 
        United States workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics 
        completes this work by maintaining the Standard Occupational 
        Classification system which classifies workers and jobs into 
        occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, 
        calculating, analyzing, or disseminating data.
            (4) The BLS fails to accurately count EMS practitioners 
        because of its failure to include dual-role firefighter/EMTs 
        and firefighter/paramedics in their count of EMS personnel.
            (5) Accurately counting the EMS workforce is critical for 
        government agencies in determining the needs of EMS agencies 
        and practitioners. These data are also crucial for informing 
        many aspects of policy including preparedness for natural 
        disasters, public health emergencies, and acts of terrorism.

SEC. 3. REVISION OF STANDARD OCCUPATIONAL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM.

    (a) In General.--The Director of the Office of Management and 
Budget (in this Act referred to as the ``Director'') shall, as part of 
the first revision process of the Standard Occupational Classification 
system occurring after the date of enactment of this Act, consider 
establishing a separate code, as a subset of firefighter occupations, 
for each of the following:
            (1) Firefighters.
            (2) Firefighter/EMTs.
            (3) Firefighter/Paramedics.
            (4) Firefighters, All Other.
    (b) Report to Congress.--If the Director decides not to establish 
the separate codes described in subsection (a), the Director shall, not 
later than 60 days after the Director announces in the Federal Register 
the final decision of the revision process described in such 
subsection, submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Education and 
the Workforce of the House of Representatives a report explaining why 
such separate codes were not established.
                                                 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 
          medical services practitioners in the United States.

_______________________________________________________________________

                           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
```