Kelsey Smith Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1818 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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 18, 2019 Mr. ESTES (for himself and Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 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 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Kelsey Smith Act’’. 4 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:46 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1818.IH H1818 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 1818 IH SEC. 2. REQUIRED EMERGENCY DISCLOSURE OF LOCATION 1 INFORMATION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT OR 2 PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT. 3 Section 222 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 4 U.S.C. 222) is amended— 5 (1) in subsection (d)— 6 (A) in paragraph (4), by redesignating 7 subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) as clauses (i), 8 (ii), and (iii), respectively, and adjusting the 9 margins accordingly; 10 (B) by redesignating paragraphs (1) 11 through (4) as subparagraphs (A) through (D), 12 respectively, and adjusting the margins accord- 13 ingly; 14 (C) in the matter preceding subparagraph 15 (A), as so redesignated, by striking ‘‘Nothing in 16 this section’’ and inserting the following: 17 ‘‘(1) PERMITTED DISCLOSURES.—Nothing in 18 this section’’; and 19 (D) by adding at the end the following: 20 ‘‘(2) REQUIRED EMERGENCY DISCLOSURE OF 21 LOCATION INFORMATION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT OR 22 PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT.— 23 ‘‘(A) LOCATION INFORMATION RE- 24 QUESTS.—Notwithstanding subsections (a), (b), 25 and (c), at the request of an investigative or 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:46 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1818.IH H1818 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 1818 IH law enforcement officer or an employee or other 1 agent of a public safety answering point acting 2 on behalf of such an officer, who is acting in 3 the course of the official duties of the officer or 4 agent, a provider of a covered service shall pro- 5 vide to the officer or agent the available loca- 6 tion information of a telecommunications device 7 without delay if the officer or agent asserts— 8 ‘‘(i) that the device was used to place 9 a 9–1–1 call requesting emergency assist- 10 ance during the preceding 48-hour period; 11 or 12 ‘‘(ii) reasonable suspicion that the de- 13 vice is in the possession of an individual 14 who is involved in an emergency situation 15 that involves the risk of death or serious 16 physical harm. 17 ‘‘(B) RECORDS OF DISCLOSED RECORDS.— 18 If an investigative or law enforcement officer, 19 or an employee or other agent of a public safety 20 answering point acting on behalf of such an of- 21 ficer, submits a request for location information 22 to a provider of a covered service under sub- 23 paragraph (A), the investigative or law enforce- 24 ment agency employing the officer shall main- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:46 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1818.IH H1818 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 1818 IH tain a record of the request that includes each 1 of the following: 2 ‘‘(i) The name of the officer or agent 3 making the request (and, in the case of a 4 request made by an agent, the name of the 5 officer on whose behalf the agent is act- 6 ing). 7 ‘‘(ii) A description of the request that 8 explains the need for disclosure of location 9 information. 10 ‘‘(iii) A declaration that disclosure of 11 location information is needed based on the 12 conditions described in clause (i) or (ii) of 13 subparagraph (A). 14 ‘‘(C) HOLD HARMLESS.—No cause of ac- 15 tion shall lie in any court, nor shall any civil or 16 administrative proceeding be commenced by any 17 person or entity, against a provider of a covered 18 service, or its directors, officers, employees, 19 agents, or vendors, for providing location infor- 20 mation or assistance in accordance with sub- 21 paragraph (A) and any regulations promulgated 22 under this paragraph. 23 ‘‘(D) RELATIONSHIP TO STATE LAW.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:46 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1818.IH H1818 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 1818 IH ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this 1 section exempts a telecommunications car- 2 rier or a provider of a covered service from 3 complying, in a circumstance described in 4 clause (ii), with any applicable State law 5 that requires the carrier or provider to pro- 6 vide location information of a telecommuni- 7 cations device to an investigative or law en- 8 forcement officer or an employee or other 9 agent of a public safety answering point 10 acting on behalf of such an officer in re- 11 sponse to a request by the officer or agent. 12 ‘‘(ii) APPLICABILITY.—A circumstance 13 described in this clause is a circumstance 14 in which the officer or agent— 15 ‘‘(I) makes the request while act- 16 ing in the course of the official duties 17 of the officer or agent; and 18 ‘‘(II) asserts that the request is 19 made for the purpose of responding 20 to— 21 ‘‘(aa) a call for emergency 22 services; or 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:46 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1818.IH H1818 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 1818 IH ‘‘(bb) an emergency situa- 1 tion that involves the risk of 2 death or serious physical harm.’’; 3 (2) in subsection (f)(1), by striking ‘‘subsection 4 (d)(4)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (d)(1)(D)’’; and 5 (3) in subsection (h), by adding at the end the 6 following: 7 ‘‘(8) COVERED SERVICE.—The term ‘covered 8 service’ means— 9 ‘‘(A) a commercial mobile service (as de- 10 fined in section 332(d)); or 11 ‘‘(B) an IP-enabled voice service (as de- 12 fined in section 7 of the Wireless Communica- 13 tions and Public Safety Act of 1999 (47 U.S.C. 14 615b)). 15 ‘‘(9) INVESTIGATIVE OR LAW ENFORCEMENT 16 OFFICER.—The term ‘investigative or law enforce- 17 ment officer’ has the meaning given the term ‘Inves- 18 tigative or law enforcement officer’ in section 2510 19 of title 18, United States Code.’’. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:46 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1818.IH H1818 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS