The act directs the Federal Communications Commission to issue annual public hearings about events where the Disaster Information Reporting System is activated, and to publish a report within 120 days detailing outages across broadband, mobile, and related services. It also directs the FCC to study improvements to outage notifications, including visual information for public safety use, and to assess 911 outage reporting thresholds.
Separately, the bill reclassifies public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation in the Standard Occupational Classification within 30 days of enactment, and requires an enforcement-report related to Kari’s Law Act of 2017 within 180 days. The goal is to improve situational awareness, accountability, and the resiliency of emergency communications.
At a Glance
What It Does
The FCC must hold at least one public hearing each year for System-activated events (lasting at least seven days) and publish a 120-day report covering outages across broadband, VoIP, and mobile services, plus affected users and infrastructure.
Who It Affects
PSAPs, state/local/tribal governments, electric utilities, communications providers, and residents in affected areas.
Why It Matters
Creates regular, data-driven scrutiny of outage events and strengthens reporting to support emergency response and network resiliency.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill requires the FCC to establish a regular cadence of public hearings about events that trigger the Disaster Information Reporting System, ensuring stakeholders from government, industry, and the public can participate and provide input. After each hearing, the FCC must issue a report within 120 days that catalogs outages across key services—broadband, interconnected VoIP, and mobile networks—and estimates how many users and what portions of critical infrastructure were affected.
The reports should also consider the impact on 911 call routing and caller location data, and the agency may publish the findings with appropriate confidentiality protections. The act also tasks the FCC with investigating how to improve network outage notifications, including whether adding visual information would help public safety agencies respond more effectively, and whether 911 outage reporting thresholds should be adjusted.
In a separate track, the bill moves to reclassify public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation within 30 days, aligning the SOC with the essential, lifesaving work they perform. Finally, it requires a 180-day FCC review of Kari’s Law Act enforcement—assessing manufacturer compliance, identifying enforcement gaps, and recommending legislative or regulatory changes to close gaps.
The overarching aim is to strengthen emergency communications by enhancing transparency, accountability, and resiliency.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The FCC must hold at least one public hearing per year on System-activated events, lasting no less than seven days.
Within 120 days of each hearing, the FCC must publish a report detailing outages across broadband, interconnected VoIP, and mobile services and estimating affected users and infrastructure.
The FCC must study whether including visual information in outage notifications can improve emergency response and address 911 outage reporting thresholds.
Public safety telecommunicators must be categorized as a protective service occupation under the SOC within 30 days of enactment.
A 180-day FCC-enforced report on Kari’s Law Act enforcement will assess compliance, address obstacles, and suggest legislative or regulatory improvements.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Disaster Information Reporting System hearings and outage reports
This section requires the FCC to hold at least one public hearing each year relating to events when the Disaster Information Reporting System was activated, with the hearing lasting no fewer than seven days and including a broad roster of stakeholders. Not later than 120 days after the hearing, the Commission must publish a report covering outages across broadband, interconnected VoIP, commercial mobile service, and commercial mobile data service, along with estimates of affected users and infrastructure and whether 911 routing and location information were impacted. In developing these reports, the Commission may rely on information gathered through the System and the public hearing, while protecting confidential information as appropriate.
Public safety telecommunicators reclassified as protective service occupations
The section finds that public safety telecommunicators perform critical emergency response work and should be accurately reflected in the Standard Occupational Classification system. It directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to categorize public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation within 30 days of enactment, ensuring the SOC aligns with related classification systems and recognizes the lifesaving role these workers perform.
Kari’s Law Act enforcement report
This section requires a report within 180 days assessing the enforcement of Kari’s Law Act provisions (Section 721 of the Communications Act). The report should summarize compliance by multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors, identify any difficulties in conformity, and offer recommendations to improve agency policies. It also invites Congress to consider further legislation to mitigate problems comparable to those addressed by Kari’s Law.
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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 answering points (PSAPs) gain access to more comprehensive outage data and improved situational awareness, enabling faster and more coordinated responses.
- State, local, and tribal governments in affected regions benefit from structured input and data-informed insights during post-event hearings and reports.
- Electric utilities and telecommunications providers gain clearer reporting expectations and opportunities to prioritize resiliency and network hardening based on observed outages.
- Emergency management and first responders receive more granular data on outages and their impact on emergency call routing and operations.
- Disaster-affected residents and consumer advocates gain greater transparency into outage patterns and recovery efforts.
Who Bears the Cost
- FCC and System administrators incur ongoing costs to plan, administer, and publish annual hearings and reports.
- Originating service providers may face burdens to include visual outage information in notifications and to meet evolving reporting expectations.
- Multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors could incur additional compliance monitoring and reporting responsibilities.
- State, local, and tribal governments may incur costs to participate in hearings and to implement changes resulting from new reporting and classification requirements.
- Public safety agencies may bear costs associated with integrating new data flows into operations and training personnel to use enhanced outage information.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is balancing the public safety and accountability benefits of granular outage reporting and enhanced situational awareness with the compliance burden on providers and the need to protect sensitive information, all while ensuring that the data collected meaningfully informs emergency response without stifling network innovation.
The bill emphasizes transparency and accountability in emergency communications, but it also creates new data-collection and reporting burdens on providers and the FCC. The practical impact depends on how the FCC implements confidentiality protections, data standardization, and alignment with existing reporting rules.
Data quality and timeliness will be critical to ensure that the annual hearings and subsequent reports yield actionable insights rather than a bureaucratic exercise. Privacy considerations and the potential strategic use of outage data by market participants are ongoing questions.
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