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H.R. 5200: Emergency Reporting Act

119th Congress · introduced 2025-09-08 · Science, Technology, Communications · Latest: Received in the Senate. Read twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 375.

federal

What does this mean?

Official title

Emergency Reporting Act

Plain summary

Emergency Reporting Act This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate and report on emergency communications outages (e.g., 9-1-1 outages). Specifically, 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, (2) the value and practicality of including visual information in outage notifications from communications providers, and (3) recommended changes to FCC rules to address these issues. Separately, the FCC must hold annual public hearings on events for which the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) was activated for at least a week. (DIRS is a reporting system that is activated during severe weather and other events impacting communications service. It enables communications providers to report outages and other degradations to service.) After each such hearing, the FCC must issue a report that includes information about the number, duration, and nature of all associated outages, along with recommendations for improving the resiliency of affected communications services or networks. Such reports must generally be made public on the FCC website.

Congressional Research Service summary (Reported to House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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A “Nay” vote

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PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Emergency Reporting Act

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Reported to House)

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Rep. Matsui, Doris O. [D-CA-7] · 2 cosponsors

Money: CBO cost estimate: H.R. 5200, Emergency Reporting Act (2026-02-24) No linked contracts or vendors yet.

Recorded votes

Words on this page, explained (1)
Bill
A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Record fed-us-cong119-hr5200 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong119 · updated 2026-11-03 by psicol fed-bills