Summary

Requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to hold annual public hearings and publish reports after major activations of the Disaster Information Reporting System, and to study improvements to outage reporting and 911 notification practices. Directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reclassify public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. Orders the FCC to report on enforcement of the statutory requirement that multi-line telephone systems allow direct 911 dialing and provide notifications to onsite personnel (Kari’s Law).

• FCC must hold annual public hearings and issue public reports after Disaster Information Reporting System activations lasting 7+ days.
• Hearing reports must summarize outages, affected users/infrastructure, PSAP impacts, and FCC resiliency recommendations within 120 days.
• FCC must investigate whether outage reporting and 911 notification practices (including adding visual info) should be changed and recommend rule updates within one year.
• OMB must reclassify public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation in the SOC within 30 days to improve federal labor statistics.
• FCC must publish a report within 180 days on enforcement of multi-line telephone system 911 requirements (Kari’s Law), including compliance and recommended actions.
• Primary effects fall on PSAPs, first responders, telecom providers, MLTS manufacturers/vendors, and local governments, improving transparency and potential regulatory change.
• The legislation mandates studies, hearings, and reports but does not appropriate funding or expand FCC authority beyond existing statutory limits.