The Emergency Reporting Act requires the FCC to hold at least one public hearing each year on disaster events where its Disaster Information Reporting System was activated for seven or more days, then publish a detailed report within 120 days of each hearing. Each report must cover the number and duration of broadband, mobile, and VoIP outages; how many users were affected; and whether 911 centers lost the ability to receive calls or caller location data during the event. Hearing participants may include first responders, state, local, and tribal government officials, residents, telecom providers, and emergency managers. The FCC must also investigate how many 911 outages currently fall below existing notification thresholds and go unreported, assess whether providers should add visual situational-awareness information to outage alerts, and recommend rule changes. All reports must be posted publicly on the FCC's website, except information submitted with a confidentiality request.
Transparency & Accountability
- FCC annual post-disaster public hearings — required for all events where DIRS was activated 7+ days
- Public reports on outage scope and 9-1-1 system failures — required within 120 days of each hearing
- FCC investigation into unreported 9-1-1 outages — assesses gaps under current notification thresholds
- FCC website publication of all disaster-outage reports — required, with narrow confidentiality exclusion
Congressional Summary
This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate and report on emergency communications outages (e.g., 9-1-1 outages).Specifically, the FCC must publish a general report on (1) the volume and nature of 9-1-1 outages that are not required to be reported under current outage notification rules, (2) the value and practicality of including visual information in outage notifications from communications providers, and (3) recommended changes to FCC rules to address these issues.Separately, the FCC must hold annual public hearings on events for which the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) was activated for at least a week. (DIRS is a reporting system that is activated during severe weather and other events impacting communications service. It enables communications providers to report outages and other degradations to service.) After each such hearing, the FCC must issue a report that includes information about the number, duration, and nature of all associated outages, along with recommendations for improving the resiliency of affected communications services or networks. Such reports must generally be made public on the FCC website.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Received in the Senate. Read twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 375.
- Action Date
- 2026-04-21
- Date Added
- 2026-04-16
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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