IIB 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4167 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 24, 2016 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multiline telephone systems to have a configuration that permits users to directly initiate a call to 9–1–1 without 

dialing any additional digit, code, prefix, or post-fix, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Kari’s Law Act of 

3 2016’’. 

4 SEC. 2. CONFIGURATION OF MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE SYS5 TEMS FOR DIRECT DIALING OF 9–1–1. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title VII of the Communications 

7 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) is amended by adding 

8 at the end the following: 

9 ‘‘SEC. 721. CONFIGURATION OF MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE 

10 SYSTEMS FOR DIRECT DIALING OF 9–1–1. 

11 ‘‘(a) SYSTEM MANUFACTURE, IMPORTATION, SALE, 

12 AND LEASE.—A person engaged in the business of manu13 facturing, importing, selling, or leasing multi-line tele14 phone systems may not manufacture or import for use in 

15 the United States, or sell or lease or offer to sell or lease 

16 in the United States, a multi-line telephone system, unless 

17 such system is pre-configured such that, when properly in18 stalled in accordance with subsection (b), a user may di19 rectly initiate a call to 9–1–1 from any station equipped 

20 with dialing facilities, without dialing any additional digit, 

21 code, prefix, or post-fix, including any trunk-access code 

22 such as the digit ‘9’, regardless of whether the user is re23 quired to dial such a digit, code, prefix, or post-fix for 

24 other calls. 

25 ‘‘(b) SYSTEM INSTALLATION, MANAGEMENT, AND

26 OPERATION.—A person engaged in the business of installVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:31 May 25, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4167.RFS H4167

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1 ing, managing, or operating multi-line telephone systems 

2 may not install, manage, or operate for use in the United 

3 States such a system, unless such system is configured 

4 such that a user may directly initiate a call to 9–1–1 from 

5 any station equipped with dialing facilities, without dialing 

6 any additional digit, code, prefix, or post-fix, including any 

7 trunk-access code such as the digit ‘9’, regardless of 

8 whether the user is required to dial such a digit, code, 

9 prefix, or post-fix for other calls. 

10 ‘‘(c) ON-SITE NOTIFICATION.—A person engaged in 

11 the business of installing, managing, or operating multi12 line telephone systems shall, in installing, managing, or 

13 operating such a system for use in the United States, con14 figure the system to provide a notification to a central lo15 cation at the facility where the system is installed or to 

16 another person or organization regardless of location, if 

17 the system is able to be configured to provide the notifica18 tion without an improvement to the hardware or software 

19 of the system. 

20 ‘‘(d) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Nothing in this sec21 tion is intended to alter the authority of State commis22 sions or other State or local agencies with jurisdiction over 

23 emergency communications, if the exercise of such author24 ity is not inconsistent with this Act. 


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1 ‘‘(e) ENFORCEMENT.—This section shall be enforced 

2 under title V, except that section 501 applies only to the 

3 extent that such section provides for the punishment of 

4 a fine. 

5 ‘‘(f) MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE SYSTEM DEFINED.— 

6 In this section, the term ‘multi-line telephone system’ has 

7 the meaning given such term in section 6502 of the Middle 

8 Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 

9 1471).’’. 

10 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para12 graph (2), section 721 of the Communications Act 

13 of 1934, as added by subsection (a) of this section, 

14 shall apply beginning on the date that is 2 years 

15 after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

16 (2) EXCEPTION.—Subsection (b) or (c) of such 

17 section 721 shall not apply to a multi-line telephone 

18 system that was installed before the date that is 2 

19 years after the date of the enactment of this Act if 

20 such system is not able to be configured to meet the 

21 requirement of such subsection (b) or (c), 


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1 respectively, without an improvement to the hard2 ware or software of the system. 

Passed the House of Representatives May 23, 2016. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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