S. 725 — Enhancing First Response Act

This section establishes requirements for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concerning the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), an FCC system used by communications providers to voluntarily report outages and restoration during presidentially declared emergencies or major disasters. (1) Directs the FCC to hold at least one public hearing each year on events during the prior year for which DIRS was activated for seven or more days, considering input from affected state, local, and Indian tribal governments; residents and consumer advocates; communications providers; academia; federal agencies; electric utilities; infrastructure companies; and first responders, emergency managers, and 911 directors. (2) Requires the FCC, not later than 120 days after each such hearing, to issue and publish a report (excluding confidential or company-specific information) on the number and duration of outages of broadband internet access service, interconnected VoIP service, commercial mobile service, and commercial mobile data service; approximate number of affected users and communications infrastructure; outages preventing public safety answering points (PSAPs) from receiving caller location or number information or routing emergency calls; and FCC recommendations to improve communications resiliency and recovery. (Thus, reports draw on DIRS data and hearing input without new information collection.) (3) Directs the FCC, not later than one year after enactment, to investigate and publish a report on the value and feasibility of originating service providers including visual information in PSAP outage notifications; volume and nature of potentially unreported 911 outages under current FCC thresholds; and recommended rule changes. (4) Provides a rule of construction clarifying no additional FCC authority over broadband internet access service providers beyond this Act.

This section directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to categorize public safety telecommunicators (i.e., emergency dispatchers) as a protective service occupation under the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system not later than 30 days after enactment. (The SOC system, maintained for statistical purposes by federal agencies, classifies workers based on work performed, skills, education, or training to collect, analyze, and disseminate occupational data.)

This section directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to publish a report, not later than 180 days after enactment, on its enforcement of Kari’s Law (47 U.S.C. 623). (Kari’s Law requires manufacturers, importers, sellers, lessors, installers, managers, and operators of multi-line telephone systems—such as those used in offices and hotels—to configure such systems for direct 911 dialing from any station without prefixes (e.g., the digit 9) and, if feasible without hardware or software upgrades, on-site notification of 911 calls.) The report must include (1) a summary of compliance by multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors; (2) potential difficulties and obstacles in compliance; (3) recommendations to the FCC, if necessary, to improve enforcement policies; and (4) recommendations to Congress, if necessary, on further legislation to address problems targeted by Kari’s Law.