H.R. 5200

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5200 Placed on Calendar Senate (PCS)]

<DOC>

Calendar No. 375
119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5200

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

April 21, 2026

Received; read twice and placed on the calendar

_______________________________________________________________________

AN ACT

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue reports after 
activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System and to make 
improvements to network outage reporting, 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 ``Emergency Reporting Act''.

SEC. 2. REPORTS AFTER ACTIVATION OF DISASTER INFORMATION REPORTING 
SYSTEM; IMPROVEMENTS TO NETWORK OUTAGE REPORTING.

(a) Reports After Activation of Disaster Information Reporting 
System.--
(1) Public hearings.--
(A) Requirement.--Not later than 1 year after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, and annually 
thereafter, the Commission shall hold not less than 1 
public hearing relating to all events during the 
preceding 1-year period for which the System was 
activated for not less than 7 days.
(B) Inclusion of certain individuals in hearings.--
For each public hearing held under subparagraph (A), 
the Commission shall consider including--
(i) representatives of State governments, 
local governments, or Indian tribal governments 
in areas affected by such events;
(ii) residents of the areas affected by 
such events, or consumer advocates;
(iii) providers of communications services 
affected by such events;
(iv) faculty of institutions of higher 
education;
(v) representatives of other Federal 
agencies;
(vi) electric utility providers;
(vii) communications infrastructure 
companies; and
(viii) first responders, emergency 
managers, or 9-1-1 directors in areas affected 
by such events.
(2) Reports.--Not later than 120 days after the date on 
which a public hearing held under paragraph (1) concludes, the 
Commission shall issue a report that includes, with respect to 
the events to which such hearing relates and to the extent 
known without requiring the collection of additional 
information--
(A) the number and duration of any outages of--
(i) broadband internet access service;
(ii) interconnected VoIP service;
(iii) commercial mobile service; and
(iv) commercial mobile data service;
(B) the approximate number of users and the amount 
of communications infrastructure potentially affected 
by an outage described in subparagraph (A);
(C) the number and duration of any outages that 
prevent emergency communications centers from receiving 
caller location or number information or receiving 
emergency calls and routing such calls to emergency 
service personnel; and
(D) any recommendations of the Commission on how to 
improve the resiliency of affected communications 
services or networks.
(3) Development of reports.--In developing a report 
required by paragraph (2), the Commission shall consider 
information collected by the Commission with respect to the 
events to which such report relates, including information 
collected through the System and the relevant public hearing.
(4) Publication of reports.--
(A) In general.--Except as provided in subparagraph 
(B), the Commission shall publish each report required 
by paragraph (2) on the website of the Commission upon 
the issuance of such report.
(B) Exclusion.--In publishing a report under 
subparagraph (A), the Commission shall exclude 
information that is otherwise exempt from public 
disclosure under the rules of the Commission or that 
was submitted to the Commission with a proper request 
for confidential treatment as described in section 
0.459 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations (or any 
successor regulation).
(b) Improvements to Network Outage Reporting.--Not later than 1 
year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 
conduct an investigation and publish on the website of the Commission a 
report on--
(1) the value to public safety agencies of originating 
service providers including visual information to improve 
situational awareness about outages in the notifications 
provided to emergency communications centers, as required by 
the rules of the Commission;
(2) the volume and nature of 9-1-1 outages that may go 
unreported under the outage notification thresholds of the 
Commission;
(3) the balance between the value described in paragraph 
(1) to public safety agencies and the burden and practicality 
for originating service providers of including visual 
information in outage notifications as described in such 
paragraph; and
(4) recommended changes to the rules of the Commission to 
address the matters reported under paragraphs (1) and (2).
(c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to provide the Commission or any other person authority over 
any provider of broadband internet access service beyond what is 
specifically authorized under this section.
(d) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Broadband internet access service.--The term 
``broadband internet access service'' has the meaning given 
such term in section 8.1(b) of title 47, Code of Federal 
Regulations (or any successor regulation).
(2) Commercial mobile data service.--The term ``commercial 
mobile data service'' has the meaning given such term in 
section 6001 of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation 
Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1401).
(3) Commercial mobile service.--The term ``commercial 
mobile service'' has the meaning given such term in section 
332(d) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(d)).
(4) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal 
Communications Commission.
(5) Emergency communications center.--
(A) In general.--The term ``emergency 
communications center'' means--
(i) a facility that--
(I) is designated to receive a 9-1-
1 request for emergency assistance; and
(II) performs 1 or more of the 
functions described in subparagraph 
(B); or
(ii) a public safety answering point (as 
defined in section 222 of the Communications 
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 222)).
(B) Functions described.--The functions described 
in this subparagraph are the following:
(i) Processing and analyzing 9-1-1 requests 
for emergency assistance and information and 
data related to such requests.
(ii) Dispatching appropriate emergency 
response providers.
(iii) Transferring or exchanging 9-1-1 
requests for emergency assistance and 
information and data related to such requests 
with 1 or more other emergency communications 
centers and emergency response providers.
(iv) Analyzing any communications received 
from emergency response providers.
(v) Supporting incident command functions.
(6) Indian tribal government; local government.--The terms 
``Indian tribal government'' and ``local government'' have the 
meanings given such terms in section 102 of the Robert T. 
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 
U.S.C. 5122).
(7) Interconnected voip service; state.--The terms 
``interconnected VoIP service'' and ``State'' have the meanings 
given such terms in section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 153).
(8) Outage.--The term ``outage'' has the meaning given such 
term in section 4.5 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations 
(or any successor regulation).
(9) System.--The term ``System'' means the Disaster 
Information Reporting System of the Commission.

Passed the House of Representatives April 20, 2026.

Attest:

KEVIN F. MCCUMBER,

Clerk.
Calendar No. 375

119th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. R. 5200

_______________________________________________________________________

AN ACT

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue reports after 
activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System and to make 
improvements to network outage reporting, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

April 21, 2026

Received; read twice and placed on the calendar