YourVoice.Now Summary
Transparency & AccountabilityCorporate BenefitsAfter a big disaster, the FCC would have to tell you what knocked out phone and 911 service.
Transparency & Accountability
The FCC would have to hold at least one public hearing a year. It would cover every disaster where its outage-tracking system stayed on for seven days or more, and could include local officials, first responders, residents, and phone companies.
Each report would be due 120 days after the hearing and posted on the FCC website. It would count outages, estimate how many people lost service, and note when 911 centers could not take calls or see caller locations.
Some 911 outages go unreported because they fall under the FCC's current alert limits. Within a year, the agency would have to measure that gap, study whether adding visuals to outage alerts would help, and propose rule changes.
The bill asks only for what the agency already knows, so it would not order new data gathering. Details that companies filed as confidential would also be left out of the public version.
Corporate Benefits
The FCC could not use this law to claim broader authority over broadband companies. Its powers here would stop at what the text spells out.
More about this bill
When a big storm or wildfire knocks out phone and internet service, you would get a public report on what failed. The Federal Communications Commission oversees phone and internet service. It would hold a public hearing each year on disaster events that lasted a week or longer. Within 120 days of each hearing, it would post a report online. The report would say how many people lost cell, broadband, or internet phone service. It would also say how long each outage lasted, and whether 911 centers could not take calls or see where callers were. The reports would use what the agency already knows. Nothing here would make companies gather new data, so some gaps would remain. The agency would also study 911 outages that go unreported now, because they fall under its current alert limits. That study would be public within a year. Hearings could include local officials, first responders, residents, and phone companies. The law would give the agency no new power over internet providers. The measure passed the House in April 2026 and now sits in the Senate. Your phone bill and your 911 service would not change.
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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