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 En-
ergy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multi- 
line telephone systems to have a configuration that per-
mits 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 Representa-
tives 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’’. 
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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, con-
figure the system to provide a notification to a central lo-
cation 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 notifica-
tion without an improvement to the hardware or software 
of the system. 
‘‘(d) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Nothing in this sec-
tion is intended to alter the authority of State commis-
sions or other State or local agencies with jurisdiction over 
emergency communications, if the exercise of such author-
ity 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. 
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‘‘(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.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), section 721 of the Communications Act 
of 1934, as added by subsection (a) of this section, 
shall apply beginning on the date that is 2 years 
after the date of the enactment of this Act. 
(2) EXCEPTION.—Subsection (b) or (c) of such 
section 721 shall not apply to a multi-line telephone 
system that was installed before the date that is 2 
years after the date of the enactment of this Act if 
such system is not able to be configured to meet the 
requirement of such subsection (b) or (c), respec-
tively, without an improvement to the hardware or 
software of the system. 
Æ 
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