[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 128 (Wednesday, September 22, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H6839-H6842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 EMERGENCY MEDIC TRANSITION ACT OF 2010

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 3199) to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide 
grants to State emergency medical service departments to provide for 
the expedited training and licensing of veterans with prior medical 
training, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 3199

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Emergency Medic Transition 
     Act of 2010'' or the ``EMT Act of 2010''.

     SEC. 2. ASSISTING VETERANS WITH MILITARY EMERGENCY MEDICAL 
                   TRAINING TO BECOME STATE-LICENSED OR CERTIFIED 
                   EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS (EMTS).

       (a) In General.--Part B of title III of the Public Health 
     Service Act (42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.) is amended by inserting 
     after section 314 the following:

     ``SEC. 315. ASSISTING VETERANS WITH MILITARY EMERGENCY 
                   MEDICAL TRAINING TO BECOME STATE-LICENSED OR 
                   CERTIFIED EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS (EMTS).

       ``(a) Program.--The Secretary shall establish a program 
     consisting of awarding grants to States to assist veterans 
     who received and completed military emergency medical 
     training while serving in the Armed Forces of the United 
     States to become, upon their discharge or release from active 
     duty service, State-licensed or certified emergency medical 
     technicians.
       ``(b) Use of Funds.--Amounts received as a grant under this 
     section may be used to assist veterans described in 
     subsection (a) to become State-licensed or certified 
     emergency medical technicians as follows:
       ``(1) Providing to such veterans required course work and 
     training that take into account, and are not duplicative of, 
     medical course work and training received when such veterans 
     were active members of the Armed Forces of the United States, 
     to enable such veterans to satisfy emergency medical services 
     personnel certification requirements in the civilian sector, 
     as determined by the appropriate State regulatory entity.
       ``(2) Providing reimbursement for costs associated with--
       ``(A) such course work and training; or
       ``(B) applying for licensure or certification.
       ``(3) Expediting the licensing or certification process.
       ``(4) Entering into an agreement with any institution of 
     higher education, or other educational institution certified 
     to provide course work and training to emergency medical 
     personnel, for purposes of providing course work and training 
     under this section if such institution has developed a 
     suitable curriculum that meets the requirements of paragraph 
     (1).
       ``(c) Eligibility.--To be eligible for a grant under this 
     section, a State shall demonstrate to the Secretary's 
     satisfaction that the State has a shortage of emergency 
     medical technicians.
       ``(d) Report.--The Secretary shall submit to the Congress 
     an annual report on the program under this section.
       ``(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--To carry out this 
     section, there are authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 
     for each of fiscal years 2011 through 2015.''.
       (b) GAO Study and Report.--The Comptroller General of the 
     United States shall--
       (1) conduct a study on the barriers experienced by veterans 
     who received training as medical personnel while serving in 
     the Armed Forces of the United States and, upon their 
     discharge or release from active duty service, seek to become 
     licensed or certified in a State as civilian health 
     professionals; and
       (2) not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment 
     of this Act, submit to the Congress a report on the results 
     of such study, including recommendations on whether the 
     program established under section 315 of the Public Health 
     Service Act, as added by subsection (a), should be expanded 
     to assist veterans seeking to become licensed or certified in 
     a State as health providers other than emergency medical 
     technicians.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Pallone) and the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Whitfield) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.

[[Page H6840]]

                             General Leave

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material in the Record.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New Jersey?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3199, the 
Emergency Medic Transition Act of 2010. H.R. 3199 will help military 
medics transition to work as civilian emergency medic technicians. This 
bill authorizes grants for States that have a shortage of emergency 
medic technicians to create programs to train returning veterans with 
emergency medical training that they become State-certified EMTs.
  The goal of this legislation is twofold: to help vets with medical 
training transition back into civilian life and to shore up our 
civilian emergency response capabilities, particularly in States with a 
demonstrated need for these services. Programs like the ones authorized 
by this legislation may be helpful for veterans with other health care 
experience. That's why this legislation also requires the GAO to 
conduct a study to understand the barriers experienced by returning 
vets with medic experience from becoming civilian health care 
professionals. GAO will make recommendations to Congress whether it 
makes sense to expand this program to other health care professions.
  I would like to thank in particular of course Representative Harman 
and Representative Sarbanes, both from our Energy and Commerce 
Committee, for their dedication to and leadership on this important 
issue.
  I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today also in support of H.R. 
3199, the Emergency Medic Transition Act.
  This legislation would provide grants to States with a shortage of 
EMTs to assist veterans who have completed military emergency training 
and assist them in becoming State-licensed or certified EMTs.
  Through their service in the Armed Forces, these veterans have 
received some of the best emergency response training available. Our 
Nation is currently blessed with thousands of men and women who, 
through their honorable service in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the 
world, are equipped with unmatched credentials and vast practical 
experience.
  We have heard of stories from around the country of there being a 
shortage of EMTs and about the training and licensing barriers 
returning veterans face when they transition to the civilian workforce. 
If the Federal Government has provided training in emergency management 
services to these veterans, it would be beneficial to use that 
investment to fill EMT needs in communities once the veteran has left 
the service. It makes sense to me that we should help veterans with 
life-saving skills to use them in our communities after they come home.
  I would certainly like to thank also Congresswoman Harman and 
Chairman Pallone as well as Congressman Buyer of Indiana, all of whom 
have worked hard on this legislation.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the bill's sponsor, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman), such time as she may consume.
  Ms. HARMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and subcommittee 
chair, Mr. Pallone, and his ace staff for working to bring this 
bipartisan bill, the Emergency Medic Transition, or EMT Act, to the 
floor. I also want to thank Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. Buyer and 
others for their support in committee. Truly, it might be said that 
bipartisanship broke out in our committee during the debate on this 
bill.
  As you heard from Mr. Pallone, the bill will help our brave men and 
women who serve as medics in Afghanistan and Iraq to transition into 
EMT jobs when they return. The act authorizes grants for States that 
have a shortage of EMTs to create a fast-track program for vets who 
received and completed military emergency medical training to become 
emergency responders. The funds authorized in this bill can be used to 
provide coursework and training, and reimbursement for the cost of 
coursework, and any certification fees.
  Obviously, the bill is a win-win for the country and our vets. Its 
passage will enhance the surge capacities of local medical facilities 
and provide jobs for our vets, especially during this critical economic 
downturn.
  It is worth noting that the unemployment rate last year for Iraq and 
Afghanistan veterans 18 to 24 years old was 21.1 percent. Let me repeat 
that. Our returning vets' unemployment rate was 21.1 percent 
unemployment, which is significantly higher than the 16.6 percent rate 
for nonveterans of the same age.
  Presently, military medics who wish to become first responders must 
restart their training from scratch, fulfilling the same entry level 
criteria as people with no prior training or experience. These 
duplicative efforts waste time, money, and talent. At the same time, 
many hospitals and emergency medical services throughout the country 
operate at or near capacity, and a terrorist attack or natural disaster 
would result in a surge of patients that would overwhelm medical 
facilities. Correcting this requires having the largest possible pool 
of experienced medical personnel on hand.
  With military medics' recent experience administering trauma care in 
Afghanistan and Iraq, these vets are ideally suited to respond to 
large-scale medical emergencies. They are ideal first responders, 
making life or death decisions amid a backdrop of chaos and confusion. 
Their work at the scenes of IED attacks, suicide bombings, and 
firefights prepares them for this.
  In conclusion, the GAO study that Mr. Pallone referenced will report 
on barriers experienced by veteran medics and whether or not we should 
expand this program to other health care providers.
  I urge support for the bill. It demonstrates in tangible form our 
appreciation for the service and skills of our returning military 
medics.

                              {time}  1630

  Mr. WHITFIELD. I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
other person who did a lot of work on their legislation, the gentleman 
from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes).
  Mr. SARBANES. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I rise in strong support of this bill, and I salute Congresswoman 
Harman for her excellent work on this and perceiving where there was a 
need and how that need could be met.
  There are plenty of studies out there, and there's also a lot of 
anecdotal evidence that there are really severe shortages across our 
health workforce, and this is an area to which I brought particular 
attention, looking at where these shortages are, in trying to think not 
just how we look at the traditional pipelines to bring people into 
these positions, but how we think outside of the box at some of the 
nontraditional sources where we can find the expertise and the 
experience to bring that through the pipeline and to fill these 
shortages.
  H.R. 3199 proposes a very innovative way to meet the needs that we 
have across the country for emergency medical technicians. It 
recognizes that military medics who are returning have acquired very 
valuable experience during their service, which positions them 
extremely well to meet those needs and to fill those positions.
  It also recognizes that there's obstacles, that there's significant 
costs sometimes associated with the training that goes with 
certification, that it can be difficult in terms of getting that done 
in a timely fashion. What this bill does is address those issues. It 
would award grants to States to begin to streamline the licensing 
process, provide some resources to assist with the costs of training, 
and do other things to basically expedite this process of getting these 
experienced people into these jobs where we need them.
  It makes a lot of common sense. I think that's why it's garnered 
bipartisan support, and I certainly urge my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the

[[Page H6841]]

gentlewoman from South Dakota, Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin.
  Ms. HERSETH SANDLIN. I thank the chairman, the gentleman from New 
Jersey, for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3199, the 
Emergency Medic Transition Act of 2010. This is a collaborative effort, 
and I would like to thank Representatives Harman, Bean, Sarbanes and so 
many others for their collaborative partnership on drafting the bill.
  I also want to thank Representative Steve Buyer with whom I have 
worked closely on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Representative Buyer 
offered some commonsense suggestions as the ranking member of our full 
committee on how to improve H.R. 3199. He is also a member of the House 
Energy and Commerce Committee, and he helped make the final product a 
better piece of legislation.
  This bill takes important steps to improve the ability of veterans to 
translate their military experience into the civilian workforce, 
specifically working to help veterans with military medical experience 
to become civilian emergency medical technicians. The legislation 
creates a grant program that will assist individual States in the 
creation of a fast-track EMT certification process that takes into 
account the experience a veteran gained while serving in the military.
  Recent estimates from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics 
suggests that veterans between the ages of 18 and 24 had an 
unemployment rate of 21.6 percent in 2009. This is a terribly troubling 
number and the Veterans' Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, 
which I have the honor of chairing, has held a series of hearings 
during the 111th Congress on a variety of issues related to veterans 
employment.
  These hearings have shown that one of the critical barriers facing 
newly separated veterans trying to enter the workforce is the challenge 
of translating their military experience to the civilian market. So I 
am pleased that the legislation the House is considering today not only 
increases access to health care, but does so by increasing employment 
opportunities for veterans and allows them to use their skills gained 
in service to our country to serve their local communities in civilian 
life.
  H.R. 3199 also requires an assessment of whether this new program 
should be expanded to help veterans with medical training to obtain 
certification in other health professions.
  I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support 
this important legislation.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the 
gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the chairman very much for 
presiding over this very important legislation. As I have noted, any 
number of bills from the Energy and Commerce committee have been very 
constructive.
  I thank the manager from our friends on the other side of the aisle, 
and I thank in particular Representative Harman and the collaborative 
effort between Energy and Commerce and, as well, Veterans' Affairs.
  This bill, modest in funding--and I would like to emphasize that 
before I even speak about its importance--modest in funding, $5 million 
per year between 2011, I believe, and 2015, takes an important step 
toward the value that we place on our service men and women. One, we 
thank them while they are serving, and we have made a commitment to 
thank them when their service is finished.
  My State happens to be unique in having the highest percentage of 
returning soldiers, in particular from Iraq and Afghanistan, in the 
State of Texas. In addition, many of you are aware of many of the bases 
in our State, but, as well, you are aware of the horrific tragedy that 
occurred at Fort Hood just a few months ago and, of course, coming up 
on its first-year recognition.
  In that instance, many were lost, but some were injured; and the idea 
of using soldiers who have been trained by the military to return home 
for first responder utilization is a brilliant idea and one that is 
long in coming. It is well known that veterans do have a higher 
unemployment in the general population in many instances.
  But also, Mr. Speaker, we know that many of our veterans, because of 
a number of serious issues, find themselves homeless. Where is our 
continued promise about treating them with the same respect and dignity 
that we have done so while they were in the service and then when they 
are out?
  So this particular legislation, H.R. 3199, does two things that I 
think are enormously important, takes advantage of the important talent 
that is coming home, that wonderful training that saves lives on the 
battlefield to use in America's emergency rooms.
  Then I was so delighted to be able to hear that as we move to have 
this massive and important change in medical reform, health care reform 
that is going to save lives--particularly, I think, tomorrow will be a 
number of new provisions coming out in the health care bill--now we 
have the ability to assess the training of these very fine men and 
women to serve in America's medical professions. This is key. It's a 
great partnership.
  I thank the author of the bill. I rise to support it. I am loudly 
saying to those who are returning home to Texas and other States around 
the Nation that we now have an opportunity to use your great talents to 
save lives, to be in America's hospitals, to be in fire stations, to 
assist police officers and to be there when danger and disaster comes 
to face Americans on the home soil.
  What better way of using the great talent that we have. The men and 
women who were willing to offer their lives on the battlefield now can 
come home and serve their fellow Americans in one of the highest 
professions we have and that is the health care profession, where you 
can say that no matter where you are, you have the ability to save 
lives.
  I ask my colleagues to support enthusiastically H.R. 3199.
  Mr. BUYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3199 the 
``Emergency Medic Transition (EMT) Act.'' This bill, introduced by 
Congresswoman Harman, was originally included as an amendment to the 
House passed version of the Health Reform bill. Congresswoman Harman, 
at my request, kindly withdrew the amendment so we could properly vet 
this with our VA Committee professional staff. I want to thank 
Congresswoman Harman for allowing my staff to review the bill and 
contribute suggestions. I am pleased to announce my full support of 
this legislation to help veterans and states alike.
  By funding this HHS program that will award grants to state entities 
with jurisdiction over emergency medical personnel training and 
licensing, states will be provided the resources for our veterans to 
receive the EMT training and certification they need, help fill state 
shortages in emergency medical technicians, and avoid duplicative 
training courses and costs. Further, the included GAO study will help 
Congress assess the program's effectiveness going forward.
  Licensing and certification of returning veterans for civilian jobs 
for skills that they have been trained and are well-experienced in from 
their military service has been a long standing point of frustration 
and a barrier to many returning veterans finding meaningful employment 
in a timely manner. Recent reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
show that the unemployment rate among our newest cohort of veterans is 
at an alarming rate of 19.3% for the month of August. It is my hope 
that H.R. 3199 will alleviate a portion of this problem and help our 
combat medics get their EMT licenses with as little bureaucratic red 
tape as possible.
  Lastly, in order for this bill to meet its full intent and potential, 
it is critical for the Governors of our states to swiftly create 
consistent licensing standards necessary to fill EMT shortages and put 
veterans to work. I look forward to working with the states to 
accomplish this goal.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill, and I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3199, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further

[[Page H6842]]

proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

                          ____________________