The legislation would ensure Americans reach help when dialing 9-1-1, including during natural disasters, and make important updates to the classification of 9-1-1 dispatchers

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced that their bipartisan Enhancing First Response Act, which would make important updates to our 9-1-1 emergency reporting system to ensure Americans can reach help when they dial 9-1-1 during natural disasters and improve implementation of Kari’s law, has advanced out of the Commerce Committee.

The legislation will also ensure 9-1-1 dispatchers are recognized as protective service workers to ensure their job classification appropriately recognizes the lifesaving nature of their work. This legislation is also co-sponsored by Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ed Markey (D-MA), Ted Budd (R-NC), Angus King (I-ME), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

“Americans need reliable communications networks, especially 9-1-1, and this is a crucial step toward ensuring that reliability,” said Klobuchar. “Our bipartisan legislation will save lives by ensuring Americans can connect to 9-1-1 during major disasters and improving the resiliency of our 9-1-1 system against outages and disruptions. It also recognizes 9-1-1 dispatchers for their critical roles during times of crisis by ensuring they are classified as the first responders that they are.”

“Ensuring Americans can reach help when they dial 9-1-1 during natural disasters is paramount,” said Blackburn. “The Emergency Reporting Act takes necessary steps to prevent 9-1-1 service disruptions, properly recognize dispatchers for their lifesaving work, and further study how we can make improvements to the 9-1-1 emergency response system.”

Specifically, the Enhancing First Response Act would:

  • Require the FCC to issue a report after major natural disasters on the extent to which people were unable to reach 9-1-1 during the disaster and subsequent recovery efforts, and make recommendations to improve the resiliency of 9-1-1 systems to prevent future service disruptions;
  • Require the FCC to study the unreported 9-1-1 outages and develop recommendations to improve outage reporting and communication between mobile carriers experiencing network outages and 9-1-1 centers;
  • Update the classification of 9-1-1 dispatchers from clerical workers to protective service workers in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) to better reflect the life-saving work they perform each day. The SOC is a tool used by federal agencies to classify the workforce into useful, occupational categories;
  • Require the FCC to report on the extent to which multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors have complied with Kari’s Law, which Senator Klobuchar worked to pass into law in 2018 and requires the manufacturers of multi-line telephone systems to create systems that allow callers to reach 9-1-1 without dialing a prefix or postfix.

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