IIB 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 5918 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation AN ACT To direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue reports after activation of the Disaster Information Re- porting System and to make improvements to network outage reporting. 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 03:58 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5918.RFS H5918 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 HR 5918 RFS SECTION 1. REPORTS AFTER ACTIVATION OF DISASTER IN- 1 FORMATION REPORTING SYSTEM; IMPROVE- 2 MENTS TO NETWORK OUTAGE REPORTING. 3 (a) REPORTS AFTER ACTIVATION OF DISASTER IN- 4 FORMATION REPORTING SYSTEM.— 5 (1) PRELIMINARY REPORT.— 6 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 weeks 7 after the deactivation of the Disaster Informa- 8 tion Reporting System with respect to an event 9 for which the System was activated for at least 10 7 days, the Commission shall issue a prelimi- 11 nary report on, with respect to such event and 12 to the extent known— 13 (i) the number and duration of any 14 outages of— 15 (I) broadband internet access 16 service; 17 (II) interconnected VoIP service; 18 (III) commercial mobile service; 19 and 20 (IV) commercial mobile data 21 service; 22 (ii) the approximate number of users 23 or the amount of communications infra- 24 structure potentially affected by an outage 25 described in clause (i); 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5918.RFS H5918 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 HR 5918 RFS (iii) the number and duration of any 1 outages at public safety answering points 2 that prevent public safety answering points 3 from receiving emergency calls and routing 4 such calls to emergency service personnel; 5 and 6 (iv) any additional information deter- 7 mined appropriate by the Commission. 8 (B) DEVELOPMENT OF REPORT.—The 9 Commission shall develop the report required by 10 subparagraph (A) using information collected 11 by the Commission, including information col- 12 lected by the Commission through the System. 13 (2) PUBLIC FIELD HEARINGS.— 14 (A) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 8 15 months after the deactivation of the Disaster 16 Information Reporting System with respect to 17 an event for which the System was activated for 18 at least 7 days, the Commission shall hold at 19 least 1 public field hearing in the area affected 20 by such event. 21 (B) INCLUSION OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS 22 IN HEARINGS.—For each public field hearing 23 held under subparagraph (A), the Commission 24 shall consider including— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5918.RFS H5918 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 HR 5918 RFS (i) representatives of State govern- 1 ment, local government, or Indian Tribal 2 governments in areas affected by such 3 event; 4 (ii) residents of the areas affected by 5 such event, or consumer advocates; 6 (iii) providers of communications serv- 7 ices affected by such event; 8 (iv) faculty of institutions of higher 9 education; 10 (v) representatives of other Federal 11 agencies; 12 (vi) electric utility providers; 13 (vii) communications infrastructure 14 companies; and 15 (viii) first responders, emergency 16 managers, or 9–1–1 directors in areas af- 17 fected by such event. 18 (3) FINAL REPORT.—Not later than 12 months 19 after the deactivation of the Disaster Information 20 Reporting System with respect to an event for which 21 the System was activated for at least 7 days, the 22 Commission shall issue a final report that includes, 23 with respect to such event— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5918.RFS H5918 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 HR 5918 RFS (A) the information described under para- 1 graph (1)(A); and 2 (B) any recommendations of the Commis- 3 sion on how to improve the resiliency of af- 4 fected communications or networks recovery ef- 5 forts. 6 (4) DEVELOPMENT OF REPORTS.—In devel- 7 oping a report required under this subsection, the 8 Commission shall consider information collected by 9 the Commission, including information collected by 10 the Commission through the System, and any public 11 hearing described in paragraph (2) with respect to 12 the applicable event. 13 (5) PUBLICATION.—The Commission shall pub- 14 lish each report, excluding information that is other- 15 wise exempt from public disclosure under the rules 16 of the Commission, issued under this subsection on 17 the website of the Commission upon the issuance of 18 such report. 19 (b) IMPROVEMENTS TO NETWORK OUTAGE REPORT- 20 ING.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enact- 21 ment of this Act, the Commission shall conduct a pro- 22 ceeding and, after public notice and an opportunity for 23 comment, adopt rules to— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5918.RFS H5918 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 HR 5918 RFS (1) determine the circumstances under which to 1 require service providers subject to the 9–1–1 regu- 2 lations established under part 9 of title 47, Code of 3 Federal Regulations, to submit a timely notification, 4 (in an easily accessible format that facilities situa- 5 tional awareness) to public safety answering points 6 regarding communications service disruptions within 7 the assigned territories of such public safety answer- 8 ing points that prevent— 9 (A) the origination of 9–1–1 calls; 10 (B) the delivery of Automatic Location In- 11 formation; or 12 (C) Automatic Number Identification; 13 (2) require such notifications to be made; and 14 (3) specify the appropriate timing of such noti- 15 fication. 16 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 17 (1) AUTOMATIC LOCATION INFORMATION; 18 AUTOMATIC NUMBER IDENTIFICATION.—The terms 19 ‘‘Automatic Location Information’’ and ‘‘Automatic 20 Number Identification’’ have the meaning given 21 those terms in section 9.3 of title 47, Code of Fed- 22 eral Regulations, or any successor regulation. 23 (2) BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.— 24 The term ‘‘broadband internet access service’’ has 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5918.RFS H5918 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 HR 5918 RFS the meaning given such term in section 8.1(b) of 1 title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any suc- 2 cessor regulation. 3 (3) COMMERCIAL MOBILE SERVICE.—The term 4 ‘‘commercial mobile service’’ has the meaning given 5 such term in section 332(d) of the Communications 6 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(d)). 7 (4) COMMERCIAL MOBILE DATA SERVICE.—The 8 term ‘‘commercial mobile data service’’ has the 9 meaning given such term in section 6001 of the Mid- 10 dle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 11 (47 U.S.C. 1401). 12 (5) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 13 means the Federal Communications Commission. 14 (6) INDIAN TRIBAL GOVERNMENT; LOCAL GOV- 15 ERNMENT.—The terms ‘‘Indian Tribal government’’ 16 and ‘‘Indian Tribal Government’’ have the meaning 17 given those terms in section 102 of the Robert T. 18 Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance 19 Act (42 U.S.C. 5121). 20 (7) INTERCONNECTED VOIP SERVICE.—The 21 term ‘‘interconnected VoIP service’’ has the meaning 22 given such term in section 3 of the Communications 23 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5918.RFS H5918 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 HR 5918 RFS (8) PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT.—The 1 term ‘‘public safety answering point’’ has the mean- 2 ing given such term in section 222 of the Commu- 3 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 222). 4 (9) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean- 5 ing given such term in section 3 of the Communica- 6 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153). 7 Passed the House of Representatives September 21, 2020. Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, Clerk. VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Sep 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5918.RFS H5918 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS