H. R. 582 

One Hundred Fifteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and eighteen 

An Act 

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. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Kari’s Law Act of 2017’’. 

SEC. 2. CONFIGURATION OF MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE SYSTEMS FOR 

DIRECT DIALING OF 9–1–1. 

(a) IN GENERAL.—Title VII of the Communications Act of 1934 

(47 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 

following: 

‘‘SEC. 721. CONFIGURATION OF MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE SYSTEMS FOR 

DIRECT DIALING OF 9–1–1. 

‘‘(a) SYSTEM MANUFACTURE, IMPORTATION, SALE, AND LEASE.— 

A person engaged in the business of manufacturing, importing, 

selling, or leasing multi-line telephone systems may not manufacture or import for use in the United States, or sell or lease or 

offer to sell or lease in the United States, a multi-line telephone 

system, unless such system is pre-configured such that, when properly installed in accordance with subsection (b), a user may directly 

initiate a call to 9–1–1 from any station equipped with dialing 

facilities, without dialing any additional digit, code, prefix, or postfix, including any trunk-access code such as the digit ‘9’, regardless 

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

or post-fix for other calls. 

‘‘(b) SYSTEM INSTALLATION, MANAGEMENT, AND OPERATION.— 

A person engaged in the business of installing, managing, or operating multi-line telephone systems may not install, manage, or 

operate for use in the United States such a system, unless such 

system is configured such that a user may directly initiate a call 

to 9–1–1 from any station equipped with dialing facilities, without 

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

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

user is required to dial such a digit, code, prefix, or post-fix for 

other calls. 

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

of installing, managing, or operating multi-line telephone systems 

shall, in installing, managing, or operating such a system for use 

in the United States, configure the system to provide a notification 
H. R. 582—2 

to a central location at the facility where the system is installed 

or to another person or organization regardless of location, if the 

system is able to be configured to provide the notification without 

an improvement to the hardware or software of the system. 

‘‘(d) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Nothing in this section is intended 

to alter the authority of State commissions or other State or local 

agencies with jurisdiction over emergency communications, if the 

exercise of such authority is not inconsistent with this Act. 

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

V, except that section 501 applies only to the extent that such 

section provides for the punishment of a fine. 

‘‘(f) MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE SYSTEM DEFINED.—In this section, 

the term ‘multi-line telephone system’ has the meaning given such 

term in section 6502 of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation 

Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1471).’’. 

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by subsection (a) 

shall apply with respect to a multi-line telephone system that 

is manufactured, imported, offered for first sale or lease, first sold 

or leased, or installed after the date that is 2 years after the 

date of the enactment of this Act. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.