Enhancing First Response Act

Increased Transparency During Disasters: The Commission must hold annual public hearings and issue reports detailing the number and duration of outages for broadband, mobile, and VoIP services after the Disaster Information Reporting System is activated (Section 2(b)). This provides clarity on how communication failures affected people during major events.

Improved Emergency Response Information: The Act directs the Commission to investigate the value of providing visual information to public safety agencies to improve situational awareness during outages (Section 2(c)).

Recognition of Essential Workers: Public safety telecommunicators will be categorized as a protective service occupation under the Standard Occupational Classification system (Section 3(b)). This corrects an inaccurate representation of their work and recognizes their role in performing lifesaving duties (Section 3(a)).

Enhanced Oversight of Safety Laws: The Commission is required to report on how well manufacturers and vendors are complying with the Kari's Law Act of 2017 (Section 4). This includes identifying obstacles to compliance and recommending ways to improve enforcement or legislation.

Information Privacy Concerns: While the Commission is directed to publish reports on outages, it is instructed not to publicly disclose company-specific information (Section 2(b)).

Potential Burden on Service Providers: During the investigation into network outage reporting, the Commission must consider the "burden and practicality" for service providers regarding the inclusion of visual information in outage notifications (Section 2(c)).