S 725

Summary

Enhancing First Response Act This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to report on certain activations of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS). DIRS is a reporting system that is activated during severe weather and other events impacting communications service and enables communications providers to report outages and other degradations to service. If the system was activated for at least seven days, the FCC must issue a preliminary report that includes information about the number, duration, and nature of all associated outages. The FCC must also hold at least one public field hearing in the area affected by the event, and it must issue a final report that includes recommendations for improving the resiliency of affected networks or recovery efforts. Separately, the FCC must publish a general report on (1) the volume and nature of 9-1-1 outages that are not required to be reported under current outage notification rules, and (2) the value to public safety agencies of the inclusion of visual information in outage notifications from communications providers. The bill also requires the Office of Management and Budget, by 30 days after the bill's enactment, to categorize public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation under the Standard Occupational Classification System. Finally, the Office of the Inspector General of the FCC is directed to publish a report on the implementation of Kari’s Law, which requires multiline telephone systems to be preconfigured to allow users to dial 9-1-1 directly from any phone without dialing any additional code or prefix.

Bill status

Status

Passed Senate

Sponsor

Sen. Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]

Cosponsors

12

Policy area

Science, Technology, Communications

Introduced

2025-02-25

Latest action

2025-09-11: Held at the desk.

Committee referrals

• Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee: Senate · Reported By · 2025-09-02
• Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee: Senate · Markup By · 2025-04-30
• Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee: Senate · Referred To · 2025-02-25

Recent actions

• 2025-09-11: Held at the desk.
• 2025-09-11: Received in the House.
• 2025-09-11: Message on Senate action sent to the House.
• 2025-09-10: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S6555; text of amendment in the nature of a substitute: CR S6555)
• 2025-09-10: Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.