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April 20, 2026
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Download official House Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5200) 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.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5200
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.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen) and the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia.
General Leave
Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Georgia?
There was no objection.
Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this bill, H.R. 5200, the Emergency Reporting Act, led by Representative Matsui.
infrastructure are paramount. This legislation would direct the FCC to hold hearings and issue reports related to 911 outages after natural disasters and to make recommendations to improve outage reporting, bolster resiliency, and enhance coordination with State and local emergency officials. This will help make our communications systems stronger in the face of natural disasters.
Madam Speaker, this legislation has strong bipartisan support. I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1640
Ms. McCLELLAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5200, the Emergency Reporting Act. This important bill would improve the way we assess communication failures that keep Americans in the dark with no access to 911 or emergency information during and after natural disasters.
an emergency alert with potentially lifesaving information depends on networks being up and running during that event. The network staying up, in turn, depends on the strength and resiliency of our communications infrastructure and whether networks are being built and maintained to withstand increasingly powerful elements.
to natural disasters. Hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, flash floods, earthquakes, and many more have destroyed whole communities and decimated infrastructure serving entire regions.
the places we represent, it is critical that we put systems in place to gather the best information in the aftermath of natural disasters about what went wrong and why.
closely examine communications failures in the aftermath of disaster periods so that we, as policymakers, can use information about recurring trends to help make networks more hardened and resilient in the face of future disasters. It is essential for Congress and Federal agencies to prioritize efforts to make networks more reliable so they work for all Americans when they need them most.
Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Matsui).
Ms. MATSUI. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5200, the Emergency Reporting Act, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
every second counts. When a family calls 911, they should never be met with silence.
often we are left without clear answers about what went wrong or how to prevent it from happening again.
bipartisan bill, with Congressman Bilirakis that helps fix this. My bill directs the FCC to report after natural disasters on the extent to which people couldn't reach 911 and to recommend ways to improve outage reporting, resiliency, and coordination with State and local officials.
other bipartisan efforts to strengthen our emergency communications systems and save lives.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill.
Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Madam Speaker, in closing, I urge my colleagues to vote
in favor of H.R. 5200, the Emergency Reporting Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I thank Ms. Matsui and my colleague from Virginia for their support of this bill. In closing, I encourage a “yes” vote on this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5200.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed.