S. 3556 · 118th Congress
Enhancing First Response Act
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Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 118th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
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KlobucharSponsor11 cosponsors · 4 D, 6 R, 1 I
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Blackburn
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Heinrich
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Thune
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Budd
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King
SC
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Capito
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Luján
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Crapo
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Manchin
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Sullivan
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Tester3 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to report on certain activations of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS). DIRS is a reporting system, activated during severe weather and other events impacting communications service, through which communications providers report outages and other degradations to service.
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Dec 18, 2023
Enhancing First Response Act
This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to report on certain activations of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS). DIRS is a reporting system, activated during severe weather and other events impacting communications service, through which communications providers report outages and other degradations to service.
If the system was activated for at least seven days, the FCC must issue a preliminary report that includes information about the number, duration, and nature of all associated outages. The FCC must also hold at least one public field hearing in the area affected by the event, and it must issue a final report that includes recommendations on how to improve the resiliency of affected networks.
Separately, the FCC must publish a general report on (1) the volume and nature of 9-1-1 outages that are not required to be reported under current outage notification rules, and (2) the value to public safety agencies of the inclusion of visual information in outage notifications from communications providers.
The bill also requires the Office of Management and Budget, by 30 days after the bill's enactment, to categorize public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation under the Standard Occupational Classification System.
Finally, the Office of the Inspector General of the FCC is directed to publish a report on the implementation of Kari’s Law, which requires multiline telephone systems to be preconfigured to allow users to dial 9-1-1 directly from any phone without dialing any additional code or prefix.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: Enhancing First Response Act
Latest action (Dec 18, 2023): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Dec 18, 2023
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.