Emergency Reporting Act

Sponsor: Doris O. Matsui (Democratic-CA)

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Introduced

In Committee

Passed One Chamber

Passed Both Chambers

Signed into Law

Received in the Senate. Read twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 375.

Government would report on communication outages after major disasters and seek ways to improve 9-1-1 alerts.

This bill would make the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hold public meetings and release reports about phone and internet outages after major disasters. This means the FCC would consider including people affected by outages in public discussions, and the public would get more information about how communication networks held up. It would also push for better ways to report 9-1-1 outages.

What Would Change

Right now, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) isn't required to hold annual public hearings or issue specific reports after its Disaster Information Reporting System is activated for major events. If this bill passes, the FCC would be required to hold annual public hearings and publish detailed reports on communication outages after major disasters. It would also investigate ways to improve 9-1-1 outage reporting, including the use of visual information.

Key Provisions

Requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to hold at least one public meeting each year about communication outages that happened during major disasters.
Requires the FCC to publish reports detailing the number and length of outages for internet, phone, and mobile services after these disasters.
Requires the FCC to investigate how 9-1-1 outage reporting can be improved, including the use of visual information.
Requires the FCC to publish all reports on its website, while protecting confidential business information.