S. 725 · 119th Congress

Enhancing First Response Act

Introduced on Feb 25, 2025 by Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). 12 cosponsors, 6 of them from another party. Latest action (Sep 11, 2025): Held at the desk.

Stage
Passed one chamber
Introduced
Feb 25, 2025
Cosponsors
12
6 from the other party
Policy area
Science, Technology, Communications
Open in the Congress explorerCongress.govAlert me

Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. Reported by committee
  3. Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

A bill to direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue reports after activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System and to make improvements to network outage reporting, to categorize public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation under the Standard Occupational Classification system, and for other purposes.

Subjects

  • Congressional oversight
  • Emergency communications systems
  • Emergency planning and evacuation
  • First responders and emergency personnel
  • Government information and archives
  • Government studies and investigations
  • Telephone and wireless communication

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in Senate, Feb 25, 2025). Public domain.

Enhancing First Response Act

This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to report on certain activations of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS). DIRS is a reporting system that is activated during severe weather and other events impacting communications service and enables communications providers to report outages and other degradations to service.

If the system was activated for at least seven days, the FCC must issue a preliminary report that includes information about the number, duration, and nature of all associated outages. The FCC must also hold at least one public field hearing in the area affected by the event, and it must issue a final report that includes recommendations for improving the resiliency of affected networks or recovery efforts.

Separately, 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, and (2) the value to public safety agencies of the inclusion of visual information in outage notifications from communications providers.

The bill also requires the Office of Management and Budget, by 30 days after the bill's enactment, to categorize public safety telecommunicators as a protective service occupation under the Standard Occupational Classification System.

Finally, the Office of the Inspector General of the FCC is directed to publish a report on the implementation of Kari’s Law, which requires multiline telephone systems to be preconfigured to allow users to dial 9-1-1 directly from any phone without dialing any additional code or prefix.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Amy KlobucharD-MNSponsor

Democrats · 5

Independents · 1

Republicans · 6

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Feb 25, 2025Introduced in Senate
  2. Feb 25, 2025 · SenateRead twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  3. Apr 30, 2025 · SenateCommittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
  4. Sep 2, 2025Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 119-59.
  5. Sep 2, 2025 · SenateCommittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 119-59.
  6. Sep 2, 2025 · SenatePlaced on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 146.
  7. Sep 10, 2025Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.
  8. Sep 10, 2025 · SenatePassed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S6555; text of amendment in the nature of a substitute: CR S6555)
  9. Sep 11, 2025 · SenateMessage on Senate action sent to the House.
  10. Sep 11, 2025 · HouseReceived in the House.
  11. Sep 11, 2025 · HouseHeld at the desk.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. CTIA - THE WIRELESS ASSOCIATION7 reports
    $13.4M reported (all issues)
  2. CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS INC.6 reports
    $15.4M reported (all issues)Federal contractor: CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS OPERATING, LLC$130.5K in contracts, FY2026AI match · 100%
  3. Competitive Carriers Association6 reports
    $950K reported (all issues)
  4. NCTA - THE INTERNET & TELEVISION ASSOCIATION6 reports
    $20M reported (all issues)
  5. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES3 reports
    $1.9M reported (all issues)
  6. AARP1 report
    $6.6M reported (all issues)
  7. Intrado Life and Safety, Inc.1 report
    Federal contractor: INTRADO LIFE & SAFETY, INC.$62.8K in contracts, FY2026AI match · 100%

Reports filed in 2025, 2026.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.