Enhancing First Response Act

Summary#

This bill directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue reports after the Disaster Information Reporting System (the System) is used during an event. If the System was active for at least 7 days, the FCC must publish: a preliminary report within 6 weeks after deactivation, hold at least one public field hearing in the affected area within 8 months, and publish a final report within 12 months. Reports must cover numbers and durations of outages for broadband, interconnected VoIP, commercial mobile voice and data services; approximate numbers of users or infrastructure affected; outages that stop 9-1-1 centers from getting caller location or number information or receiving and routing emergency calls; and other information the FCC finds appropriate. The FCC must post reports on its website, excluding information exempt from public disclosure.

The FCC must also, within 1 year of enactment, investigate and publish a report on: whether sending visual information from providers to 9-1-1 centers would help situational awareness, the volume and nature of 9-1-1 outages that might not be reported under current outage thresholds, and recommend rule changes.

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must, within 30 days of enactment, categorize public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.

The FCC Inspector General must publish a report within 180 days about enforcement of section 721 of the Communications Act (Kari's Law). That report must summarize compliance by multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors, list difficulties in complying, and include recommendations to the FCC and to Congress if needed.

What it means for you#

• After a major event where the System is used for a week or more, the FCC will produce public reports about communications outages and hold at least one public hearing in the affected area.
• 9-1-1 centers, communications providers, and residents in affected areas may be asked to participate in hearings and public data collection used for the reports.
• The FCC will study whether adding visual information in outage notifications to 9-1-1 centers would be useful and will review whether some 9-1-1 outages go unreported under current rules.
• Public safety telecommunicators (people who answer emergency calls) will be reclassified as a protective service occupation in the federal Standard Occupational Classification system. This changes how they are recorded for federal statistics.

Expenses#

No publicly available information.

Proponents' View#

• The bill states that public safety telecommunicators provide lifesaving work and are critical to emergency response.
• It aims to correct how telecommunicators are listed in the SOC so federal statistics better reflect their work.
• Supporters want more timely and public information about communications outages after disasters, field hearings in affected areas, and FCC recommendations to improve communications resiliency.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.