I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 582 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multi-line 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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 17, 2017 

Mr. GOHMERT (for himself, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. BRADY of Texas, Mr. 

KING of Iowa, Mr. FARENTHOLD, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. CULBERSON, Mr. 

YOHO, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. SHIMKUS, Mrs. BLACK, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. 

FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr. BURGESS, and Mr. CUELLAR) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

5 2017’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. CONFIGURATION OF MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE SYS2 TEMS FOR DIRECT DIALING OF 9–1–1. 

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

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

5 at the end the following: 

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

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

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

9 AND LEASE.—A person engaged in the business of manu10 facturing, importing, selling, or leasing multi-line tele11 phone systems may not manufacture or import for use in 

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

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

14 such system is pre-configured such that, when properly in15 stalled in accordance with subsection (b), a user may di16 rectly initiate a call to 9–1–1 from any station equipped 

17 with dialing facilities, without dialing any additional digit, 

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

19 such as the digit ‘9’, regardless of whether the user is re20 quired to dial such a digit, code, prefix, or post-fix for 

21 other calls. 

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

23 OPERATION.—A person engaged in the business of install24 ing, managing, or operating multi-line telephone systems 

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

26 States such a system, unless such system is configured 


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

2 any station equipped with dialing facilities, without dialing 

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

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

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

6 prefix, or post-fix for other calls. 

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

8 the business of installing, managing, or operating multi9 line telephone systems shall, in installing, managing, or 

10 operating such a system for use in the United States, con11 figure the system to provide a notification to a central lo12 cation at the facility where the system is installed or to 

13 another person or organization regardless of location, if 

14 the system is able to be configured to provide the notifica15 tion without an improvement to the hardware or software 

16 of the system. 

17 ‘‘(d) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Nothing in this sec18 tion is intended to alter the authority of State commis19 sions or other State or local agencies with jurisdiction over 

20 emergency communications, if the exercise of such author21 ity is not inconsistent with this Act. 

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

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

24 extent that such section provides for the punishment of 

25 a fine. 


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

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

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

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

5 1471).’’. 

6 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para8 graph (2), section 721 of the Communications Act 

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

10 shall apply beginning on the date that is 2 years 

11 after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

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

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

14 system that was installed before the date that is 2 

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

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

17 requirement of such subsection (b) or (c), respec18 tively, without an improvement to the hardware or 

19 software of the system. 

Æ 


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