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S 3963
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Rural Emergency Response Support Act

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide overtime compensation exceptions to employers of emergency medical technicians and paramedics in rural areas.

Introduced Mar 3, 2026

Latest action (Mar 3, 2026) Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Referred to
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
Policy area
Labor and Employment
Issues
Labor & Wages

Summary

This bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to provide an overtime compensation exception for employers of emergency medical technicians and paramedics in rural areas. The exception would apply to public agencies that are political subdivisions of states with fewer than 100,000 residents, and to private entities serving such subdivisions under contract. These employers would not be subject to certain overtime requirements under federal labor law when employing EMTs and paramedics. The bill targets small, rural jurisdictions to provide flexibility in managing emergency medical services staffing. The specific overtime requirements from which the exception applies would be determined under the existing framework of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
1 cosponsor

Actions (2)
  1. Mar 3, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. · senate
  2. Mar 3, 2026 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 7739 — Rural Emergency Response Support Act · Introduced Feb 26, 2026 · Cong. 119 95%
  • HR 6539 — STORM Act · Introduced Feb 2, 2026 · Cong. 119 69%
  • HR 8347 — RURAL Healthcare Act · Introduced Jul 21, 2026 · Cong. 119 66%
  • HR 3170 — Improving Access to Workers’ Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act of 2025 · Introduced Dec 4, 2025 · Cong. 119 61%
  • HR 2270 — Empowering Employer Child and Elder Care Solutions Act · Introduced Jan 13, 2026 · Cong. 119 61%
  • HR 6211 — Medical Professional Access Act · Introduced Nov 20, 2025 · Cong. 119 61%

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 3, 2026

Mr. Curtis (for himself and Mr. Lee) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide overtime compensation exceptions to employers of emergency medical technicians and paramedics in rural areas.

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 “Rural Emergency Response Support Act”.

SEC. 2. EXCEPTIONS FOR EMPLOYERS OF EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS AND PARAMEDICS IN RURAL AREAS.

Section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 207(k)) is amended in the matter preceding paragraph (1) by inserting before “if” the following: “, and no public agency which is a political subdivision of a State that has fewer than 100,000 residents, and no private entity serving such a political subdivision pursuant to a contract with such political subdivision, shall be deemed to have violated subsection (a) with respect to the employment of any employee as an emergency medical technician or as a paramedic,”. <all>

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