# The EMS Counts Act: Making Sure Emergency Responders Are Actually Counted

Right now, the government has a serious counting problem when it comes to emergency medical services workers. The Department of Labor keeps track of how many people work in different jobs across America through something called the Standard Occupational Classification System. This data helps the government understand workforce needs, plan for emergencies, and make policy decisions. But there's a gap: many firefighters who are also trained as emergency medical technicians or paramedics aren't being counted as EMS workers at all. They're only counted as firefighters, which means the actual size of the EMS workforce is invisible to government planners and policymakers.

This bill fixes that problem by requiring the Secretary of Labor to update the classification system within 120 days to separately identify firefighter/EMTs and firefighter/paramedics as distinct types of EMS practitioners. Instead of lumping all firefighters together, the system would now break them down into regular firefighters, firefighter/EMTs, firefighter/paramedics, and other firefighters. This might sound like a small administrative change, but it matters because accurate numbers help the government understand how prepared we really are for emergencies, disasters, and public health crises.

The bill also requires the Department of Labor to report back to Congress within nine months explaining how they're implementing these changes and what they did in the past to track EMTs and paramedics separately. For everyday people, this means better data for emergency preparedness planning, more accurate information about the EMS workforce, and potentially better policy decisions about funding and resources for emergency medical services. It's essentially saying that if you're a firefighter who also responds to medical emergencies, you should be counted as part of the EMS workforce, not just as a firefighter.

EMS Counts Act

Wild, Susan

EMS Counts Act This bill requires the Department of Labor 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 include the following detailed occupations <ul> <li>Firefighters;</li> <li> Firefighter/EMTs;</li> <li> Firefighter/Paramedics; and</li> <li> Firefighters, All Other.</li> </ul>