Sponsors (8)
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Last progress June 5, 2025 (8 months ago)
Introduced on June 5, 2025 by Glenn Thompson
Directs the Secretary of Labor to revise the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) firefighter description to add explicit, separate entries for Firefighters, Firefighter/EMTs, Firefighter/Paramedics, and Firefighters, All Other within 120 days of enactment. Requires the Secretary to report to Congress within 270 days describing prior actions taken in 2015 to separately count EMTs and paramedics and explaining how the new SOC revisions were implemented. The change is administrative: it updates the occupational classification used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to improve counting and tracking of EMS practitioners (including dual-role firefighter/EMTs and firefighter/paramedics) so workforce data better support planning, policy, and emergency preparedness.
EMS personnel provide a critical role in emergency response and include a diverse group of health care practitioners such as paramedics, emergency medical technicians, dual-role firefighter/EMTs, firefighter/paramedics, and volunteer personnel. (This finding defines the range of workers considered EMS.)
EMS is an integral part of the United States' capacity to respond to disasters and public health crises (for example: infectious disease outbreaks, 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.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) compiles information on the number of individuals working in roles across the U.S. workforce and does this by maintaining the Standard Occupational Classification system, which classifies workers and jobs into occupational categories for data collection and analysis.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics fails to accurately count EMS practitioners because it does not include dual-role firefighter/EMTs and firefighter/paramedics in its count of EMS personnel.
Accurately counting the EMS workforce is critical for government agencies to determine the needs of EMS agencies and practitioners and to inform policy related to preparedness for natural disasters, public health emergencies, and acts of terrorism.
Who is affected and how:
EMS practitioners: Firefighters who also serve as EMTs or paramedics (dual-role personnel) and standalone EMTs/paramedics will be more accurately identifiable in federal occupational data. That improved identification can lead to better workforce estimates used in planning, recruitment, training, and resource allocation.
Fire departments and EMS organizations: Improved classification helps describe staffing mixes and may strengthen applications or justifications for federal/state grants and workforce programs that rely on BLS statistics.
Bureau of Labor Statistics / Department of Labor: Must perform the SOC text update within the statutory timeline and produce a report to Congress; administrative workload is modest and limited in time.
Federal, state, and local planners and researchers: Will gain more granular and accurate occupational data for emergency preparedness, workforce development, and policy analysis.
Public and patients: Indirect benefit from improved planning and resource targeting based on clearer workforce data; no direct change to service delivery or benefits.
Costs and implementation notes:
Legal or regulatory impact: