Enhancing First Response Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
Requires the Federal Communications Commission to give the public more usable information after major disasters disrupt communications networks. For any event where the Disaster Information Reporting System is active for at least seven days, the FCC must hold a public hearing and then issue a report covering broadband, VoIP, commercial mobile, mobile-data, and 911 outage impacts, including affected users, affected infrastructure, and recommendations for network resiliency or recovery. The bill also makes the FCC study whether 911 outage notifications should include visual information and whether current reporting thresholds miss important outages.
Who Benefits and How
Public safety answering points, first responders, 911 directors, emergency managers, State governments, local governments, Indian tribal governments, and residents in disaster areas benefit from clearer outage information and public FCC recommendations after prolonged disasters. Public safety telecommunicators benefit because the Office of Management and Budget must categorize them as protective service workers in the Standard Occupational Classification system, correcting how their lifesaving work is represented in federal labor statistics. Congress benefits from an FCC Inspector General report on whether multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors are complying with Kari's Law direct-911 dialing and notification requirements.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The FCC must hold annual disaster-outage hearings, publish post-activation reports, investigate 911 outage-notification gaps, and avoid disclosing company-specific confidential data. Communications service providers, broadband providers, commercial mobile providers, interconnected VoIP providers, electric utilities, and communications infrastructure companies face more public scrutiny when their networks are affected by disasters. OMB must update the SOC classification within 30 days, and the FCC Office of Inspector General must report within 180 days on Kari's Law enforcement and compliance issues for multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors.
Key Provisions
- Requires FCC public hearings after Disaster Information Reporting System activations lasting at least seven days.
- Requires FCC reports on broadband, VoIP, commercial mobile, mobile-data, caller-location, caller-number, and emergency-call-routing outages.
- Directs the FCC to study visual outage information for public safety agencies and identify 911 outages that current thresholds may miss.
- Requires OMB to classify public safety telecommunicators as protective service workers under the Standard Occupational Classification system.
- Requires the FCC Inspector General to publish a Kari's Law enforcement report on multi-line telephone system manufacturer and vendor compliance.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Improves disaster and emergency-calling transparency by requiring FCC outage hearings and reports after major Disaster Information Reporting System activations, studying 911 outage-notification gaps, reclassifying public safety telecommunicators as protective service workers, and reviewing Kari's Law enforcement.
Key Policy Areas
Telecommunications, Emergency Services, Federal Workforce
Primary Purpose
Improves disaster and emergency-calling transparency by requiring FCC outage hearings and reports after major Disaster Information Reporting System activations, studying 911 outage-notification gaps, reclassifying public safety telecommunicators as protective service workers, and reviewing Kari's Law enforcement.
Policy Domains
Section 2 - FCC disaster and 911 outage transparency
Identified Gains
- Public safety answering points
- First responders and emergency managers
- State, local, and Indian tribal governments
- Residents in disaster-affected communities
- Congressional committees overseeing emergency communications
Identified Costs
- Federal Communications Commission
- Broadband internet access service providers
- Commercial mobile service providers
- Interconnected VoIP service providers
- Communications infrastructure companies
Section 4 - Kari's Law enforcement review
Identified Gains
- Congressional oversight committees
- Emergency callers using multi-line telephone systems
Identified Costs
- FCC Office of Inspector General
- Multi-line telephone system manufacturers
- Multi-line telephone system vendors
Section 3 - Public safety telecommunicator occupational classification
Identified Gains
- Public safety telecommunicators
- 911 dispatcher workers
Identified Costs
- Office of Management and Budget
- Federal statistical agencies
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed SenateHeld at the desk.
Received in the House.
Message on Senate action sent to the House.
Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR …
Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by …
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. …
Reported by Mr. Cruz, with an amendment
Passed Senate (inferred from es version)
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz …
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, FCC Office of Inspector General, Federal Communications Commission
Broadband internet access service providers, Commercial mobile service providers, Multi-line telephone system manufacturers
First responders in disaster areas, Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), Public safety answering points
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "system"
- → Disaster Information Reporting System
- "commission"
- → Federal Communications Commission
- "public_safety_answering_point"
- → Public safety answering point
- "director"
- → Director of the Office of Management and Budget
- "inspector_general"
- → Inspector General of the Federal Communications Commission
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The FCC system whose activation after disasters triggers hearings and communications-outage reports under the bill.
A 911 call center as defined in the Communications Act and FCC emergency-calling rules.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology