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.