IIB 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5918 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation 
AN ACT 
To direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue 
reports after activation of the Disaster Information Re-
porting System and to make improvements to network 
outage reporting. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. REPORTS AFTER ACTIVATION OF DISASTER IN-
FORMATION REPORTING SYSTEM; IMPROVE-
MENTS TO NETWORK OUTAGE REPORTING. 
(a) REPORTS AFTER ACTIVATION OF DISASTER IN-
FORMATION REPORTING SYSTEM.— 
(1) PRELIMINARY REPORT.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 weeks 
after the deactivation of the Disaster Informa-
tion Reporting System with respect to an event 
for which the System was activated for at least 
7 days, the Commission shall issue a prelimi-
nary report on, with respect to such event and 
to the extent known— 
(i) the number and duration of any 
outages of— 
(I) broadband internet access 
service; 
(II) interconnected VoIP service; 
(III) commercial mobile service; 
and 
(IV) commercial mobile data 
service; 
(ii) the approximate number of users 
or the amount of communications infra-
structure potentially affected by an outage 
described in clause (i); 
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(iii) the number and duration of any 
outages at public safety answering points 
that prevent public safety answering points 
from receiving emergency calls and routing 
such calls to emergency service personnel; 
and 
(iv) any additional information deter-
mined appropriate by the Commission. 
(B) DEVELOPMENT
OF
REPORT.—The 
Commission shall develop the report required by 
subparagraph (A) using information collected 
by the Commission, including information col-
lected by the Commission through the System. 
(2) PUBLIC FIELD HEARINGS.— 
(A) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 8 
months after the deactivation of the Disaster 
Information Reporting System with respect to 
an event for which the System was activated for 
at least 7 days, the Commission shall hold at 
least 1 public field hearing in the area affected 
by such event. 
(B) INCLUSION OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS 
IN HEARINGS.—For each public field hearing 
held under subparagraph (A), the Commission 
shall consider including— 
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(i) representatives of State govern-
ment, local government, or Indian Tribal 
governments in areas affected by such 
event; 
(ii) residents of the areas affected by 
such event, or consumer advocates; 
(iii) providers of communications serv-
ices affected by such event; 
(iv) faculty of institutions of higher 
education; 
(v) representatives of other Federal 
agencies; 
(vi) electric utility providers; 
(vii) communications infrastructure 
companies; and 
(viii) 
first 
responders, 
emergency 
managers, or 9–1–1 directors in areas af-
fected by such event. 
(3) FINAL REPORT.—Not later than 12 months 
after the deactivation of the Disaster Information 
Reporting System with respect to an event for which 
the System was activated for at least 7 days, the 
Commission shall issue a final report that includes, 
with respect to such event— 
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(A) the information described under para-
graph (1)(A); and 
(B) any recommendations of the Commis-
sion on how to improve the resiliency of af-
fected communications or networks recovery ef-
forts. 
(4) DEVELOPMENT
OF
REPORTS.—In devel-
oping a report required under this subsection, the 
Commission shall consider information collected by 
the Commission, including information collected by 
the Commission through the System, and any public 
hearing described in paragraph (2) with respect to 
the applicable event. 
(5) PUBLICATION.—The Commission shall pub-
lish each report, excluding information that is other-
wise exempt from public disclosure under the rules 
of the Commission, issued under this subsection on 
the website of the Commission upon the issuance of 
such report. 
(b) IMPROVEMENTS TO NETWORK OUTAGE REPORT-
ING.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Commission shall conduct a pro-
ceeding and, after public notice and an opportunity for 
comment, adopt rules to— 
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