EMS Counts Act of 2021
Bill: S.2971 | Sponsor: Sen. Casey, Robert P., Jr. (D-PA)
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
EMS Counts Act of 2021
This bill requires the Department of Labor, in collaboration with the Office of Management and Budget, to revise the broad description under the occupational series 33-2011 Firefighters of the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification System of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to separately account for firefighters who also serve as paramedics or emergency medical technicians. Specifically, the classification system must include the following detailed occupations:

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 of 2021''.

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. RECOGNITION OF DUAL-ROLE FIREFIGHTERS AS EMS PRACTITIONERS.

    Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of Labor, in collaboration with the Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget, shall revise the broad description 
under the occupational series ``33-2011 Firefighters'' of the 2018 
Standard Occupational Classification System of the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics to include the following detailed occupations:
            (1) Firefighters.
            (2) Firefighter/EMTs.
            (3) Firefighter/Paramedics.
            (4) Firefighters, All Other.

SEC. 4. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.

    Not later than 270 days after the enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of Labor, in collaboration with the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget, shall submit to Congress a report that details--
            (1) the actions taken in 2015 to expand the definition 
        ``29-2040 Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics'' to 
        separately account for the numbers of EMTs and paramedics; and
            (2) the implementation of the revisions under section 3.
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