Title: Kari's Law Act of 2017
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
Kari's Law Act of 2017
This bill amends the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit businesses from manufacturing or importing for use in the United States, or selling or leasing in the United States, a multi-line telephone system unless it is pre-configured to allow users to directly initiate a call to 9-1-1 (without dialing any additional digit, code, prefix, or post-fix, including any trunk-access code such as the digit "9") from any station equipped with dialing facilities.
Businesses are prohibited from installing, managing, or operating multi-line telephone systems without such a direct 9-1-1 call configuration.
Businesses installing, managing, or operating such systems for use in the United States must configure the systems to provide a notification 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 so configured without an improvement to the hardware or software.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 582 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 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 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.
    ``(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 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.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (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), respectively, without an improvement to the hardware or 
        software of the system.
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