I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2220
To preserve access to emergency medical services.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH18, 2025
Ms. P
EREZ(for herself, Mr. FINSTAD, Mr. FEENSTRA, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr.
L
AWLER, and Mr. HARDERof California) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in
addition to the Committee on Education and Workforce, for a period to
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
A BILL
To preserve access to emergency medical services.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preserve Access to 4
Rapid Ambulance Emergency Medical Treatment Act of 5
2025’’ or the ‘‘PARA–EMT Act of 2025’’. 6
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 7
Congress finds the following: 8
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(1) Paramedics and emergency medical techni-1
cians (in this section referred to as ‘‘EMTs’’) pro-2
vide care to ill or injured people in emergency med-3
ical settings and are a vital component of the Na-4
tion’s Emergency Medical Services (in this section 5
referred to as ‘‘EMS’’) system. 6
(2) EMTs provide basic emergency medical care 7
and transportation for patients while paramedics 8
provide advanced emergency medical care such as 9
intubation, oral and intravenous drug administra-10
tion, and other procedures. 11
(3) The United States EMS system is facing a 12
crippling workforce shortage, a long-term problem 13
that has been building for more than a decade. 14
(4) In 2019, the Health Resources and Services 15
Administration reported that by 2030, there would 16
be a need for an additional 42,000 EMTs and Para-17
medics to meet the nation’s demand for healthcare 18
services. 19
(5) The COVID–19 pandemic has further exac-20
erbated this workforce shortage, with ambulance 21
crews suffering the effects of surging demand, burn-22
out, fear of illness and stress on their families. 23
(6) A 2021 survey of nearly 20,000 employees 24
working at 258 EMS organizations found that over-25
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all turnover among paramedics and EMTs ranges 1
from 20 to 30 percent annually. 2
(7) With COVID–19 halting clinical and in-per-3
son trainings for a significant period of time, the 4
pipeline of new EMS staff has been stretched even 5
thinner. 6
SEC. 3. EMS PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE WORKFORCE 7
SHORTAGE PILOT PROGRAM. 8
Title XII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 9
300d et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 1204 10
the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 1205. EMS PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE WORK-12
FORCE SHORTAGE PILOT PROGRAM. 13
‘‘(a) G
RANTS.—The Secretary, acting through the 14
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, shall 15
establish a pilot program to award grants to eligible emer-16
gency medical services agencies to support the recruitment 17
and training of emergency medical technicians and para-18
medics to improve access to, and enhance the quality of, 19
emergency medical services. 20
‘‘(b) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible emergency medical 21
services agency seeking a grant under this section shall 22
submit to the Secretary an application at such time, in 23
such manner, and containing such information as the Sec-24
retary may require. 25
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‘‘(c) USE OFFUNDS.—An eligible emergency medical 1
services agency receiving a grant under this section shall 2
use funds received through the grant to implement a new 3
program or enhance an existing program to— 4
‘‘(1) recruit and retain emergency medical serv-5
ices personnel, which may include volunteer per-6
sonnel; 7
‘‘(2) train emergency medical services personnel 8
to obtain and maintain licenses and certifications 9
relevant to service in an emergency medical services 10
agency; 11
‘‘(3) conduct courses and implement apprentice-12
ship programs that qualify graduates to serve in an 13
emergency medical services agency in accordance 14
with State and local requirements; 15
‘‘(4) fund specific training to meet Federal or 16
State licensing or certification requirements; 17
‘‘(5) develop new ways to educate emergency 18
medical services personnel through the use of tech-19
nology-enhanced educational methods; 20
‘‘(6) establish wellness and fitness programs for 21
emergency medical services personnel to ensure that 22
such personnel are able to carry out their duties, in-23
cluding programs dedicated to raising awareness of, 24
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and prevention of, job-related mental health issues; 1
or 2
‘‘(7) train emergency medical services personnel 3
to care for people with mental and substance use 4
disorders in emergency situations. 5
‘‘(d) P
RIORITIZATION.—In awarding grants under 6
this section, the Secretary shall prioritize eligible emer-7
gency medical services agencies that— 8
‘‘(1) emphasize the recruitment and training of 9
youth, particularly high school students, rural youth, 10
and youth from low-income or disadvantaged back-11
grounds; 12
‘‘(2) develop and implement programs to assist 13
veterans who completed military emergency medical 14
technician training while serving in the Armed 15
Forces of the United States to meet certification, li-16
censure, and other requirements applicable to be-17
coming an emergency medical technician or para-18
medic; 19
‘‘(3) are small or are located in rural areas and 20
serve rural populations; or 21
‘‘(4) address such other priorities as the Sec-22
retary considers appropriate. 23
‘‘(e) A
LLOCATION OF GRANTS TORURALEMER-24
GENCYMEDICALSERVICESAGENCIES.—The Secretary 25
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shall ensure that not less than 20 percent of the total 1
number of grants under this section are made to emer-2
gency medical services agencies located in rural areas. 3
‘‘(f) M
AXIMUMGRANTAMOUNT.—The amount of a 4
grant made under this section to a single grant recipient 5
shall not exceed $1,000,000. 6
‘‘(g) R
EPORTS.— 7
‘‘(1) R
EPORT TO SECRETARY .—An eligible 8
emergency medical services agency receiving a grant 9
under subsection (a) shall periodically submit to the 10
Secretary a report evaluating the activities sup-11
ported by the grant. 12
‘‘(2) R
EPORT TO PUBLIC.—The Secretary shall 13
submit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 14
of the House of Representatives and the Committee 15
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the 16
Senate, and make publicly available, a report on the 17
Secretary’s findings with respect to the success of 18
the program under this section in improving access 19
to, and enhancing the quality of, emergency medical 20
services. 21
‘‘(h) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘eligible 22
emergency medical services agency’ means an entity that 23
is— 24
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‘‘(1) licensed to deliver medical care outside of 1
a medical facility under emergency conditions that 2
occur as a result of the condition of the patient; and 3
‘‘(2) delivers services (either on a compensated 4
or volunteer basis) by an emergency medical services 5
provider or other provider that is licensed or cer-6
tified by the State involved as an emergency medical 7
technician, a paramedic, or an equivalent profes-8
sional (as determined by the State). 9
‘‘(i) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—To carry out this section, 11
there are authorized to be appropriated $50,000,000 12
for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030. 13
‘‘(2) A
DMINISTRATIVE COSTS .—The Secretary 14
may use not more than 10 percent of the amount 15
appropriated pursuant to paragraph (1) for a fiscal 16
year for the administrative expenses of carrying out 17
this section.’’. 18
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SEC. 4. ASSISTING VETERANS WITH MILITARY EMERGENCY 1
MEDICAL TRAINING TO MEET REQUIRE-2
MENTS FOR BECOMING EMERGENCY MED-3
ICAL TECHNICIANS AND CIVILIAN PARA-4
MEDICS. 5
Part B of title III of the Public Health Service Act 6
(42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.) is amended by inserting after sec-7
tion 320B (42 U.S.C. 247d–11) the following: 8
‘‘SEC. 320C. ASSISTING VETERANS WITH MILITARY EMER-9
GENCY MEDICAL TRAINING TO MEET RE-10
QUIREMENTS FOR BECOMING EMERGENCY 11
MEDICAL TECHNICIANS AND CIVILIAN PARA-12
MEDICS. 13
‘‘(a) P
ROGRAM.—The Secretary shall— 14
‘‘(1) establish a program consisting of awarding 15
demonstration grants to States to cover transition 16
costs in order to assist veterans who completed ro-17
bust military emergency medical technician or para-18
medic training while serving in the Armed Forces of 19
the United States to meet certification, licensure, 20
and other requirements applicable to becoming a ci-21
vilian emergency medical technician or paramedic in 22
the State; and 23
‘‘(2) in implementing such program, assist 24
States in honoring the service of such veterans who 25
have completed training through such service in the 26
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Armed Forces of the United States and passed the 1
respective National Registry of Emergency Medical 2
Technicians exam to ease the transition to the civil-3
ian Nation’s Emergency Medical Services workforce. 4
‘‘(b) U
SE OFFUNDS.—A State receiving a grant 5
under this section shall use amounts of such grants to pre-6
pare and implement a plan to assist with the transition 7
of a veteran to becoming a civilian emergency medical 8
technician or paramedic as described in subsection (a), in-9
cluding by establishing a grant program within the appli-10
cable State agency responsible for emergency medical serv-11
ices to cover— 12
‘‘(1) the costs of training, education, certifi-13
cation, and credentialing by an accredited institu-14
tion; and 15
‘‘(2) fees for national testing for official certifi-16
cation and State fees to acquire State licensure. 17
‘‘(c) R
EPORT.—The Secretary shall submit to the 18
Congress an annual report on the program under this sec-19
tion. 20
‘‘(d) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 21
carry out this section, there are authorized to be appro-22
priated $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 23
2030.’’. 24
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SEC. 5. STUDY AND REPORT ON EMERGENCY MEDICAL 1
TECHNICIAN AND PARAMEDIC WORKFORCE 2
SHORTAGE. 3
(a) S
TUDY.—The Secretary of Labor, in coordination 4
with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall 5
conduct a study on— 6
(1) the number of currently available emergency 7
medical technician and paramedic jobs, categorized 8
by type of employer (such as ambulance services, 9
local governments other than hospitals, and hos-10
pitals); 11
(2) the projected increase in available emer-12
gency medical technician and paramedic jobs from 13
2025 through 2034, categorized by type of employer; 14
(3) the percentage of available emergency med-15
ical technician and paramedic jobs from 2025 16
through 2034 that are expected to result from the 17
need to replace workers who transfer to different oc-18
cupations or exit the labor force; 19
(4) the availability of appropriate training and 20
education programs in the United States sufficient 21
to meet the projected demand for emergency medical 22
technician and paramedic jobs from 2025 through 23
2034; and 24
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(5) the projected shortage of emergency medical 1
technicians and paramedics from 2025 through 2
2034. 3
(b) R
EPORT TOCONGRESS.—Not later than one year 4
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 5
of Labor, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and 6
Human Services, shall submit to Congress a report on the 7
study conducted under subsection (a) together with such 8
recommendations that the Secretaries determine are ap-9
propriate to address the projected shortage of emergency 10
medical technicians and paramedics, including whether 11
Schedule A should be expanded to include these occupa-12
tions. 13
Æ
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