Sponsors (13)
The bill aims to speed and standardize location-based assistance and improve accessibility and oversight for 988, but it trades off meaningful privacy risks, implementation and funding costs, possible governance overreach, and limits on new spending that could constrain effective rollout.
Callers to 988 (people in crisis, including mental-health/substance-use patients and veterans) could receive faster, more accurate location-based emergency response if geolocation/dispatchable-location transmission is implemented.
Deaf and hard-of-hearing callers (people-with-disabilities) may gain improved accessibility through FCC studies and stakeholder consultation on direct video calls and video relay services, enabling better ASL and video support.
Telecommunications providers, 911/988 centers, and state/local governments get clearer, unified statutory definitions for terms like 'dispatchable location' and 'emergency communications center', reducing regulatory ambiguity and simplifying compliance.
Callers to 988 (including people in crisis, veterans, and some people-with-disabilities) face significant privacy risks from mandated geolocation transmission if limits on use, retention, access, and legal safeguards are not established.
Taxpayers, telecommunications providers, and local crisis centers could incur substantial costs to implement technical changes and support operations; those costs may be passed to consumers or require new fees or subsidies.
Prohibiting new appropriations and requiring use of existing funds increases the risk that improvements to 988 and related services will be delayed, scaled back, or unfunded, limiting benefits for program beneficiaries.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Directs FCC and GAO studies on technical, legal, privacy, and cost issues for providing geolocation/dispatchable location to 988 calls and creates a temporary oversight committee.
Official title: Instruct the Federal Communications Commission to initiate a notice of inquiry and instruct the Government Accountability Office to complete a study and report providing detailed recommendations to address challenges to transmitting geolocation information with calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 19, 2025 by John A. Barrasso · Last progress May 12, 2026
Requires the FCC to open a formal inquiry and the GAO to study technical, legal, privacy, and cost issues for sending geolocation (including dispatchable location) with calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and related crisis lines. Creates a temporary congressional committee to collect information, hold hearings, and produce the GAO report; the committee dissolves 30 days after delivering that report. No new funds are authorized.