OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Emergency Reporting Act

Floor Speech

Date: April 20, 2026
Location: Washington, DC

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Ms. McCLELLAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5200, the Emergency Reporting Act. This important bill would improve the way we assess communication failures that keep Americans in the dark with no access to 911 or emergency information during and after natural disasters.

When disaster strikes, the ability to dial 911 for help or to receive an emergency alert with potentially lifesaving information depends on networks being up and running during that event. The network staying up, in turn, depends on the strength and resiliency of our communications infrastructure and whether networks are being built and maintained to withstand increasingly powerful elements.

Every Member of this body represents a district that is susceptible to natural disasters. Hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, flash floods, earthquakes, and many more have destroyed whole communities and decimated infrastructure serving entire regions.

Madam Speaker, because we know they will continue to wreak havoc on the places we represent, it is critical that we put systems in place to gather the best information in the aftermath of natural disasters about what went wrong and why.

This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission to more closely examine communications failures in the aftermath of disaster periods so that we, as policymakers, can use information about recurring trends to help make networks more hardened and resilient in the face of future disasters. It is essential for Congress and Federal agencies to prioritize efforts to make networks more reliable so they work for all Americans when they need them most.

I thank Ranking Member Matsui and Representative Bilirakis for their leadership on this important bill. I urge my colleagues to support H.R.

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Ms. McCLELLAN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Matsui).

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Ms. McCLELLAN. Madam Speaker, in closing, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 5200, the Emergency Reporting Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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