On Wednesday, September 19, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 4124, the Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act of 2012, as amended, under a suspension of the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote for passage.  This legislation was introduced by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) on March 1, 2012, and referred to the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, which held a markup and approved the legislation by voice vote on September 11, 2012.

The Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act of 2012 would amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a program to award demonstration grants to states with emergency medical technician shortages. The grants would streamline state requirements in order to assist veterans who completed military EMT training while serving in the Armed Forces in meeting state EMT certification, licensure, and other requirements. The Secretary would be required to submit an annual report to Congress on the program.

The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan-era Veterans rose to 10.9 percent in August. According to the bill’s sponsor, many veteran EMTs are required to take classes they have already competed in the military to satisfy the civilian licensure system, needlessly delaying their entry into the civilian workforce. This legislation would make allowances for returning veterans to enter the EMT workforce without unnecessary duplication of their training.

According to the Subcommittee on Health, the bill would authorize the appropriations of $1 million in total funding for the period of FY 2013—2017 to carry out this program. The bill would authorize the appropriation of the total funding ($1,000,000) for this program from the existing Public Health Service Act (PHSA) Area Health Education Centers authorization. There was no Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimate available for this bill.