Sponsors (3)
The bill increases transparency and study of 9‑1‑1 and broadband outages to improve resiliency and emergency response, but it creates compliance costs for providers and leaves gaps in public detail and the FCC's enforcement authority.
Hospitals, public-safety agencies, emergency responders, and the public: mandatory outage reports, FCC hearings, and published outage counts increase visibility into 9‑1‑1 and broadband outages, helping identify systemic gaps and guide resiliency fixes and accountability.
Consumers and communities: publishing outage counts and affected-user estimates increases transparency about service reliability so residents and policymakers can make informed decisions.
Public-safety agencies and hospitals: studying inclusion of visual information in outage notifications could lead to rule changes that improve emergency call routing and situational awareness during outages.
Broadband and communications providers: new reporting and participation requirements impose administrative burdens and compliance costs that could raise provider expenses (and ultimately consumer prices).
Government transparency limits: some outage data may be withheld as confidential, reducing the level of publicly available detail despite publication mandates.
Regulatory reach constraint: clarifying that the FCC gains no additional authority over broadband providers may limit the agency's ability to require or enforce resiliency changes identified by reports and hearings.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced September 8, 2025 by Doris Matsui · Last progress April 21, 2026
Requires the FCC to hold hearings and publish reports after extended Disaster Information Reporting System activations and to study improving outage and 9‑1‑1 reporting, including visual info.
Requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to hold public hearings and publish reports after the FCC’s Disaster Information Reporting System is activated for extended outages, and to study ways to improve outage reporting and 9‑1‑1 outage detection. It sets deadlines and required report contents, invites participation from affected parties, and requires publication of findings on the FCC website (with usual privacy protections). Also directs the FCC to complete a targeted study within one year on the benefits and burdens of including visual information in outage notifications to emergency communications centers, on 9‑1‑1 outages that may go unreported under current thresholds, and on possible rule changes to improve reporting and resiliency.