This act directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to evaluate the Standard Occupational Classification system and, during the first revision after enactment, consider establishing a separate code for public safety telecommunicators as a subset of protective service occupations. If a separate code is not created, the Director must report the final decision and the reasoning to Congress within 60 days after the revision is completed, citing the rationale and the relevant committees.
The bill is motivated by findings about the critical role of public safety telecommunicators in emergency response and the emotional and professional demands of the job, aiming to ensure accurate representation in occupational data that informs policy and funding decisions.
At a Glance
What It Does
Directs the Director of the OMB to consider establishing a separate SOC code for public safety telecommunicators in the first SOC revision after enactment, as a subset of protective service occupations. If not established, the Director must publish a report to Congress within 60 days detailing why.
Who It Affects
Federal statistical agencies (e.g., OMB, BLS) and agencies employing public safety telecommunicators, plus researchers and policymakers relying on SOC data for labor market analysis.
Why It Matters
Accurate occupation coding improves data quality for workforce planning, training funding, and cross-system classification alignment, and formally recognizes the lifesaving work of public safety telecommunicators.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill starts by establishing the scope and purpose of the act: it directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to examine the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and, in the first revision after the bill’s enactment, to consider creating a distinct code for public safety telecommunicators as a subset of protective service occupations. Section 2 of the bill lays out findings that describe why this classification matters—telecommunicators are integral to emergency response efforts, coordinating with officers, firefighters, and medics, guiding victims and bystanders, and sometimes performing critical lifesaving tasks.
The findings also note the emotional and physical toll of the job and the existing use of CISD programs to mitigate trauma. Section 3 then requires the Director to act in the revision process and to report back to Congress if the separate code is not established.
Specifically, if no separate code is created, the Director must submit a report within 60 days after the final revision decision, detailing why the change was or was not made and identifying the committees that will receive the report. The overall aim is to ensure the SOC better reflects the actual work and risks borne by public safety telecommunicators and to align federal data with related classification systems.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The Director must consider establishing a separate SOC code for public safety telecommunicators during the first SOC revision after enactment.
If a separate code is not established, the Director must report to Congress within 60 days explaining why.
The bill grounds its approach in findings about the critical role and high-stress nature of PS telecommunicator work.
SOC data are used by federal statistical agencies to classify workers for data collection and analysis, shaping policy and funding.
The act seeks to align SOC with related classifications to better reflect lifesaving work.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
This section designates the act with its official short title, the Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act of 2025 (911 SAVES Act of 2025). It establishes the naming convention auditors and agencies will reference in related materials.
Findings
This section enumerates the basis for the act, highlighting the central role of public safety telecommunicators in missing children cases, hostage situations, active shooter incidents, and routine emergency responses. It notes the emotional and physical toll, the use of CISD programs, and the current reliance on the SOC for statistical classification. Finally, it asserts that classifying PS telecommunicators as a subset of Protective Service Occupations would correct an inaccurate representation and better align SOC with related systems.
Revision of the SOC; reporting requirement
This section requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to, in the first SOC revision after enactment, consider establishing a separate code for public safety telecommunicators as a subset of protective service occupations. If the Director decides not to establish the separate code, the Director must submit a report to Congress within 60 days after the final revision decision explaining why the separate code was not created and identifying the relevant congressional committees.
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Explore Government in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Public safety telecommunicators themselves, who would gain formal recognition in SOC and improved visibility in labor data.
- Public safety answering points (PSAPs) and local emergency communications centers, for more precise workforce data and planning.
- Federal statistical agencies (e.g., OMB, BLS) that maintain SOC data and rely on occupation classifications for reporting.
- Researchers and policymakers who rely on robust, accurate occupation data for labor market analyses and program design.
- Education and training providers aligning curricula with formal SOC groupings to reflect actual job roles.
Who Bears the Cost
- OMB and other federal statistical agencies may incur costs to map, revise, and validate data to accommodate a potential new SOC code.
- State, local, and tribal agencies operating PSAPs may face data collection and reporting changes that require updates to internal systems.
- Employers and HR departments of public safety organizations could bear minor implementation costs to align data collection with the revised SOC.
- Educational institutions and training programs might need to adjust curricula and credentials to align with the revised classification.
- There is potential administrative overhead within Congress and federal agencies to develop, review, and respond to the required reports.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
Whether to create a distinct occupational code for public safety telecommunicators to improve recognition and data accuracy, or to defer classification changes and rely on a detailed congressional report to guide future actions, balancing data precision with administrative complexity and cross-agency data compatibility.
The bill hinges on a classification decision that could carry downstream data and policy implications. Establishing a separate SOC code would require coordination across multiple federal agencies and compatibility with other classification schemas.
Even if the separate code is not created, the mandated report creates a formal Congressional obligation that could influence future policy considerations and data collection priorities. A key implementation question is how the SOC revision process will incorporate feedback from stakeholders in law enforcement, emergency management, and labor statistics, and how a new code—if created—would map to existing data series.
The absence of financing provisions means the bill relies on existing agency resources to undertake the review and reporting tasks.
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