On July 10, the House Education and Workforce Committee passed an amended version of the 9-1-1 SAVES Act (H.R. 6319) which changes the legislation from directing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reclassify public safety telecommunicators to only consider changing the classification. APCO and NENA expressed disappointment in the changed language because it softens the directive to OMB, and the agency will already be considering the classification change as part of the upcoming SOC revision process. APCO will continue to advocate for correcting the classification of 9-1-1 professionals, including by pushing for passage of the original reclassification language and working directly with OMB.
The APCO and NENA joint statement reads as follows;
“Today, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce passed an amended version of the 911 SAVES Act (H.R. 6319), which would direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to consider reclassifying 9-1-1 professionals as “Protective Service” personnel in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.
NENA and APCO are disappointed that this version of the bill strays from the language of previous iterations, which would have explicitly directed OMB to reclassify 9-1-1 professionals into the “Protective Service Occupation” category, where they belong. Today’s action reflects the committee’s long-standing practice of not imposing legislative mandates onto the SOC process. This approach was applied to other reported bills on the markup today.
The amended legislation includes a requirement that should 9-1-1 professionals fail to be reclassified, then the OMB Director would have to submit an explanation to Congress within 60 days.
NENA and APCO commend the comments from committee members expressing support for 9-1-1 professionals’ service to our communities. We look forward to working with Congress – including the original 911 SAVES co-sponsors, Representatives Norma Torres (D-CA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) – to ensure that 9-1-1 professionals are recognized for the highly skilled, specialized, life-saving work they do every day.”
