Kelsey Smith Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 273 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require providers of a covered service to provide location information concerning the telecommunications device of a user of such service to an investigative or law enforcement officer or an employee or other agent of a public safety answering point in an emergency situation involving risk of death or serious physical harm or in order to respond to the user’s call for emergency services. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JANUARY 30, 2019 Mr. ROBERTS (for himself, Mr. MORAN, Mr. BLUNT, and Mrs. FISCHER) in- troduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require pro- viders of a covered service to provide location information concerning the telecommunications device of a user of such service to an investigative or law enforcement officer or an employee or other agent of a public safety answer- ing point in an emergency situation involving risk of death or serious physical harm or in order to respond to the user’s call for emergency services. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S273.IS S273 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 273 IS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Kelsey Smith Act’’. 2 SEC. 2. REQUIRED EMERGENCY DISCLOSURE OF LOCATION 3 INFORMATION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT OR 4 PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT. 5 Section 222 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 6 U.S.C. 222) is amended— 7 (1) in subsection (d)— 8 (A) in paragraph (4), by redesignating 9 subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) as clauses (i), 10 (ii), and (iii), respectively, and adjusting the 11 margins accordingly; 12 (B) by redesignating paragraphs (1) 13 through (4) as subparagraphs (A) through (D), 14 respectively, and adjusting the margins accord- 15 ingly; 16 (C) in the matter preceding subparagraph 17 (A), as so redesignated, by striking ‘‘Nothing in 18 this section’’ and inserting the following: 19 ‘‘(1) PERMITTED DISCLOSURES.—Nothing in 20 this section’’; and 21 (D) by adding at the end the following: 22 ‘‘(2) REQUIRED EMERGENCY DISCLOSURE OF 23 LOCATION INFORMATION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT OR 24 PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S273.IS S273 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 273 IS ‘‘(A) LOCATION INFORMATION RE- 1 QUESTS.—Notwithstanding subsections (a), (b), 2 and (c), at the request of an investigative or 3 law enforcement officer or an employee or other 4 agent of a public safety answering point acting 5 on behalf of such an officer, who is acting in 6 the course of the official duties of the officer or 7 agent, a provider of a covered service shall pro- 8 vide to the officer or agent the available loca- 9 tion information of a telecommunications device 10 without delay if the officer or agent asserts— 11 ‘‘(i) that the device was used to place 12 a 9–1–1 call requesting emergency assist- 13 ance during the preceding 48-hour period; 14 or 15 ‘‘(ii) reasonable suspicion that the de- 16 vice is in the possession of an individual 17 who is involved in an emergency situation 18 that involves the risk of death or serious 19 physical harm. 20 ‘‘(B) RECORDS OF DISCLOSED RECORDS.— 21 If an investigative or law enforcement officer, 22 or an employee or other agent of a public safety 23 answering point acting on behalf of such an of- 24 ficer, submits a request for location information 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S273.IS S273 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 273 IS to a provider of a covered service under sub- 1 paragraph (A), the investigative or law enforce- 2 ment agency employing the officer shall main- 3 tain a record of the request that includes each 4 of the following: 5 ‘‘(i) The name of the officer or agent 6 making the request (and, in the case of a 7 request made by an agent, the name of the 8 officer on whose behalf the agent is act- 9 ing). 10 ‘‘(ii) A description of the request that 11 explains the need for disclosure of location 12 information. 13 ‘‘(iii) A declaration that disclosure of 14 location information is needed based on the 15 conditions described in clause (i) or (ii) of 16 subparagraph (A). 17 ‘‘(C) HOLD HARMLESS.—No cause of ac- 18 tion shall lie in any court, nor shall any civil or 19 administrative proceeding be commenced by any 20 person or entity, against a provider of a covered 21 service, or its directors, officers, employees, 22 agents, or vendors, for providing location infor- 23 mation or assistance in accordance with sub- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S273.IS S273 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 273 IS paragraph (A) and any regulations promulgated 1 under this paragraph. 2 ‘‘(D) RELATIONSHIP TO STATE LAW.— 3 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this 4 section exempts a telecommunications car- 5 rier or a provider of a covered service from 6 complying, in a circumstance described in 7 clause (ii), with any applicable State law 8 that requires the carrier or provider to pro- 9 vide location information of a telecommuni- 10 cations device to an investigative or law en- 11 forcement officer or an employee or other 12 agent of a public safety answering point 13 acting on behalf of such an officer in re- 14 sponse to a request by the officer or agent. 15 ‘‘(ii) APPLICABILITY.—A circumstance 16 described in this clause is a circumstance 17 in which the officer or agent— 18 ‘‘(I) makes the request while act- 19 ing in the course of the official duties 20 of the officer or agent; and 21 ‘‘(II) asserts that the request is 22 made for the purpose of responding 23 to— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S273.IS S273 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 273 IS ‘‘(aa) a call for emergency 1 services; or 2 ‘‘(bb) an emergency situa- 3 tion that involves the risk of 4 death or serious physical harm.’’; 5 (2) in subsection (f)(1), by striking ‘‘subsection 6 (d)(4)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (d)(1)(D)’’; and 7 (3) in subsection (h), by adding at the end the 8 following: 9 ‘‘(8) COVERED SERVICE.—The term ‘covered 10 service’ means— 11 ‘‘(A) a commercial mobile service (as de- 12 fined in section 332(d)); or 13 ‘‘(B) an IP-enabled voice service (as de- 14 fined in section 7 of the Wireless Communica- 15 tions and Public Safety Act of 1999 (47 U.S.C. 16 615b)). 17 ‘‘(9) INVESTIGATIVE OR LAW ENFORCEMENT 18 OFFICER.—The term ‘investigative or law enforce- 19 ment officer’ has the meaning given the term ‘Inves- 20 tigative or law enforcement officer’ in section 2510 21 of title 18, United States Code.’’. 22 SEC. 3. CONFORMING AMENDMENT. 23 Section 2707(a) of title 18, United States Code, is 24 amended by inserting after ‘‘Except as provided in section 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S273.IS S273 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 273 IS 2703(e)’’ the following: ‘‘of this title and section 1 222(d)(2)(C) of the Communications Act of 1934’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S273.IS S273 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS