National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to Amendment No. 3, which directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reclassify public safety telecommunications officers, also called 911 dispatchers, as a protective service occupation in the U.S. Government's Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. This Amendment would have no direct effect on these workers' wages, benefits, or other resources; proponents of this reclassification have stated that it ``would provide validation.''

The SOC classification system is a federal statistical standard used across agencies in data collection. According to OMB, ``[t]he SOC is designed exclusively for statistical purposes.'' Changes to the codes affect multiple data sources frequently used by policymakers, researchers, and employers, including the American Community Survey, the nation's largest household survey; the Current Population Survey (CPS), the key source of our monthly employment numbers; and the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES), the authoritative source of employment and wage information by occupation. These changes would undermine the intent and legitimacy of the SOC by deviating from the long-established process designed to ensure the objectivity and integrity statistical data classifications more broadly.

A standing committee at OMB, the SOC Policy Committee (SOCPC), is responsible maintaining the accuracy of these codes using well-defined principles. The SOCPC undertakes a routine revision of the codes roughly once per decade; the process spans multiple years and ``involves extensive background research, periods of public comment, review of comments, and implementation of revisions.'' During its latest revision, which began in early 2012 and was finalized in 2018, OMB specifically rejected comments requesting it reclassify 911 dispatchers as directed in Amendment No. 3. In its response to public comments presented in the May 2014 Federal Register, the Obama Administration's OMB explained it ``did not accept these recommendations based on Classification Principle 2, which states that workers are coded according to the work performed. The work performed is that of a dispatcher, not a first responder.'' In 2016, OMB declined a similar request for reclassification. Based on the principles OMB's policy committee applies to determine SOC codes, 911 telephone dispatchers are already properly and accurately classified. This point was reiterated in communications with the Education and Labor Committee in 2021, explaining ``After an extensive technical review of the requested reclassification for 911 dispatchers, OMB, consistent with the recommendation of the Chief Statistician of the United States, decided not to make such an adjustment because it is inconsistent with the statistical purposes of the SOC.''

Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in a written communication with the Education and Labor Committee on September 26, 2021, reported that the change made by H.R. 1175, a bill identical to Amendment No. 3, would ``will introduce costly, unnecessary logistical and data interpretation delays and challenges affecting the quality of data.'' Moreover, changes outside of the routine revision process would undermine the goal of data continuity, limiting data sources' usefulness for their key purpose of statistical analysis; create precedent for disrupting the standard SOC revision process; and undermine the SOCPC's authority as experts to apply the classification principles to determine what accuracy requires.

Public safety telecommunications officers perform critical, challenging work. They deserve our honor and gratitude for their efforts. However, considering the many alternative ways policymakers could confer ``validation,'' as the proponents are seeking, there is little policy justification for this Amendment's approach to achieving that goal. The SOC is not intended to rank or group occupations by education, credentials, earnings, benefits or any other user-defined indicator of status.

In conclusion, mandating a change to a statistical code would not affect these workers' wages, benefits, or other resources--but it would disrupt data series continuity; require significant additional work for government agencies, researchers, employers, and others; and intervene in an official, routine government data-collection and statistical process.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would deliver a win-win-win for stormwater-stressed ecosystems; the military; and communities, like Hampton Roads, that host military installations. I was pleased to introduce this bipartisan amendment with support from my Hampton Roads colleagues, Representatives Luria and Wittman, as well as Representatives Sarbanes and Brown from Maryland and Representative Mace from South Carolina.

Flooding that occurs on and around bases jeopardizes military readiness and compounds the stress of military families. In addition to causing flooding, stormwater also remains a stubborn source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, complicating the ongoing work to restore this national treasure. For that reason, I introduced this amendment to enhance both community resilience and the health of waterways.

As rainwater falls on and travels across pavement and other impermeable surfaces, it picks up all kinds of things--nutrients from lawn fertilizer, pet waste, sediments, and chemicals that pollute the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Because climate change and unchecked emissions are heating up our atmosphere and oceans, extreme precipitation events and deadly storms, like Ida, have become more severe. In addition to more frequent and severe precipitation events on land, climate change-driven sea level rise also wreaks havoc on coastal stormwater systems, especially during high tide.

My amendment would help address the growing threat stormwater poses by expanding the authorization of existing infrastructure and resilience programs to help slow, store, and filter stormwater on military bases and in the communities that host them. Through the implementation of low impact design and installation of stormwater management features like stormwater ponds, rain gardens, permeable pavement, cisterns, and tree boxes, my amendment will reduce the stress on water infrastructure and address both the issue of flooding and stormwater pollution.

The military recognizes climate change as the ``threat multiplier'' that it is and I am grateful for the Department of Defense's partnership in the coordinated effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay. This amendment will provide the military the authorization it needs to integrate its work to enhance mission readiness with its work to protect the communities and watersheds in which installations are situated.

While we continue to work to enhance resilience in Hampton Roads and beyond, we must also work to rapidly mitigate emissions and protect precious carbon sinks--like the Chesapeake Bay--to avoid the worst of the climate crisis.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment in en bloc number four.

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