II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3556 

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue reports after 

activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System and to make 

improvements to network outage reporting, to categorize public safety 

telecommunicators as a protective service occupation under the Standard 

Occupational Classification system, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 18, 2023 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. HEINRICH, and Mr. 

THUNE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue 

reports after activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System and to make improvements to network 

outage reporting, to categorize public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation under the 

Standard Occupational Classification system, 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 ‘‘Enhancing First Re3 sponse Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. REPORTS AFTER ACTIVATION OF DISASTER INFOR5 MATION REPORTING SYSTEM; IMPROVE6 MENTS TO NETWORK OUTAGE REPORTING. 

7 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

8 (1) AUTOMATIC LOCATION INFORMATION; 

9 AUTOMATIC NUMBER IDENTIFICATION.—The terms 

10 ‘‘Automatic Location Information’’ and ‘‘Automatic 

11 Number Identification’’ have the meanings given 

12 those terms in section 9.3 of title 47, Code of Fed13 eral Regulations, or any successor regulation. 

14 (2) BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.— 

15 The term ‘‘broadband internet access service’’ has 

16 the meaning given the term in section 8.1(b) of title 

17 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor 

18 regulation. 

19 (3) COMMERCIAL MOBILE SERVICE.—The term 

20 ‘‘commercial mobile service’’ has the meaning given 

21 the term in section 332(d) of the Communications 

22 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(d)). 

23 (4) COMMERCIAL MOBILE DATA SERVICE.—The 

24 term ‘‘commercial mobile data service’’ has the 

25 meaning given the term in section 6001 of the MidVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jan 03, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3556.IS S3556

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1 dle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 

2 (47 U.S.C. 1401). 

3 (5) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

4 means the Federal Communications Commission. 

5 (6) INDIAN TRIBAL GOVERNMENT; LOCAL GOV6 ERNMENT.—The terms ‘‘Indian tribal government’’ 

7 and ‘‘local government’’ have the meanings given 

8 those terms in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford 

9 Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 

10 U.S.C. 5122). 

11 (7) INTERCONNECTED VOIP SERVICE; STATE.— 

12 The terms ‘‘interconnected VoIP service’’ and 

13 ‘‘State’’ have the meanings given those terms in sec14 tion 3 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

15 U.S.C. 153). 

16 (8) OUTAGE.—The term ‘‘outage’’ has the 

17 meaning given the term in section 4.5 of title 47, 

18 Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regu19 lation. 

20 (9) PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT.—The 

21 term ‘‘public safety answering point’’ has the mean22 ing given the term in section 222(h) of the Commu23 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 222(h)). 

24 (10) SYSTEM.—The term ‘‘System’’ means the 

25 Disaster Information Reporting System. 


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1 (b) REPORTS AFTER ACTIVATION OF DISASTER IN2 FORMATION REPORTING SYSTEM.— 

3 (1) PRELIMINARY REPORT.— 

4 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 weeks 

5 after the deactivation of the System with re6 spect to an event for which the System was ac7 tivated for not less than 7 days, the Commis8 sion shall issue a preliminary report on, with 

9 respect to such event and to the extent 

10 known— 

11 (i) the number and duration of any 

12 outages of— 

13 (I) broadband internet access 

14 service; 

15 (II) interconnected VoIP service; 

16 (III) commercial mobile service; 

17 and 

18 (IV) commercial mobile data 

19 service; 

20 (ii) the approximate number of users 

21 or the amount of communications infra22 structure potentially affected by an outage 

23 described in clause (i); 

24 (iii) the number and duration of any 

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1 ing points from receiving caller location or 

2 number information or receiving emer3 gency calls and routing such calls to emer4 gency service personnel; and 

5 (iv) any additional information deter6 mined appropriate by the Commission. 

7 (B) DEVELOPMENT OF REPORT.—The 

8 Commission shall develop the report required by 

9 subparagraph (A) using information collected 

10 by the Commission, including information col11 lected by the Commission through the System. 

12 (2) PUBLIC FIELD HEARINGS.— 

13 (A) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 8 

14 months after the deactivation of the System 

15 with respect to an event for which the System 

16 was activated for not less than 7 days, the 

17 Commission shall hold not less than 1 public 

18 field hearing in the area affected by such event. 

19 (B) INCLUSION OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS

20 IN HEARINGS.—For each public field hearing 

21 held under subparagraph (A), the Commission 

22 shall consider including— 

23 (i) representatives of State govern24 ment, local government, or Indian tribal 


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1 governments in areas affected by such 

2 event; 

3 (ii) residents of the areas affected by 

4 such event, or consumer advocates; 

5 (iii) providers of communications serv6 ices affected by such event; 

7 (iv) faculty of institutions of higher 

8 education; 

9 (v) representatives of other Federal 

10 agencies; 

11 (vi) electric utility providers; 

12 (vii) communications infrastructure 

13 companies; and 

14 (viii) first responders, emergency 

15 managers, or 9–1–1 directors in areas af16 fected by such event. 

17 (3) FINAL REPORT.—Not later than 12 months 

18 after the deactivation of the System with respect to 

19 an event for which the System was activated for not 

20 less than 7 days, the Commission shall issue a final 

21 report that includes, with respect to such event— 

22 (A) the information described in paragraph 

23 (1)(A); and 

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1 fected communications or networks recovery ef2 forts. 

3 (4) DEVELOPMENT OF REPORTS.—In devel4 oping a report required under this subsection, the 

5 Commission shall consider information collected by 

6 the Commission, including information collected by 

7 the Commission through the System, and any public 

8 hearing described in paragraph (2) with respect to 

9 the applicable event. 

10 (5) PUBLICATION.—The Commission shall pub11 lish each report, excluding information that is other12 wise exempt from public disclosure under the rules 

13 of the Commission, issued under this subsection on 

14 the website of the Commission upon the issuance of 

15 such report. 

16 (c) IMPROVEMENTS TO NETWORK OUTAGE REPORT17 ING.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 

18 of this Act, the Commission shall investigate and publish 

19 a report on— 

20 (1) the value to public safety agencies of origi21 nating service providers including visual information 

22 to improve situational awareness about outages in 

23 the notifications provided to public safety answering 

24 points, as required by rules issued by the Commis25 sion; 


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1 (2) the volume and nature of 911 outages that 

2 may go unreported under the outage notification 

3 thresholds of the Commission; and 

4 (3) recommended changes to rules issued by the 

5 Commission to address paragraphs (1) and (2). 

6 SEC. 3. REPORTING OF PUBLIC SAFETY TELECOMMUNICA7 TORS AS PROTECTIVE SERVICE OCCUPA8 TIONS. 

9 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

10 (1) Public safety telecommunicators play a crit11 ical role in emergency response, providing medical 

12 instruction, gathering lifesaving information, and 

13 protecting civilians and first responders. 

14 (2) The Standard Occupational Classification 

15 system is designed and maintained solely for statis16 tical purposes, and is used by Federal statistical 

17 agencies to classify workers and jobs into occupa18 tional categories for the purpose of collecting, calcu19 lating, analyzing, or disseminating data. 

20 (3) Occupations in the Standard Occupational 

21 Classification are classified based on work performed 

22 and, in some cases, on the skills, education, or train23 ing needed to perform the work. 

24 (4) Classifying public safety telecommunicators 

25 as a protective service occupation would correct an 


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1 inaccurate representation in the Standard Occupa2 tional Classification, recognize these professionals 

3 for the lifesaving work they perform, and better 

4 align the Standard Occupational Classification with 

5 related classification systems. 

6 (b) STANDARD OCCUPATIONAL CLASSIFICATION SYS7 TEM.—The Director of the Office of Management and 

8 Budget shall, not later than 30 days after the date of the 

9 enactment of this Act, categorize public safety telecommu10 nicators as a protective service occupation under the 

11 Standard Occupational Classification system. 

12 SEC. 4. REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE KARI’S LAW 

13 ACT OF 2017. 

14 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

15 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

16 means the Federal Communications Commission. 

17 (2) MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE SYSTEM.—The 

18 term ‘‘multi-line telephone system’’ has the meaning 

19 given the term in section 721(f) of the Communica20 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 623(f)). 

21 (b) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 180 days 

22 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Inspector Gen23 eral of the Commission shall publish a report regarding 

24 the enforcement by the Commission of section 721 of the 


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1 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 623), which shall 

2 include— 

3 (1) a summary of the extent to which multi-line 

4 telephone system manufacturers and vendors have 

5 complied with that section; 

6 (2) potential difficulties and obstacles in com7 plying with that section; 

8 (3) recommendations to the Commission, if nec9 essary, on ways to improve the policies of the Com10 mission to better enforce that section; and 

11 (4) recommendations to Congress, if necessary, 

12 on further legislation that could mitigate problems 

13 like those that are addressed by that section. 

Æ 


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