Emergency Reporting Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. MATSUI. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5200, the Emergency Reporting Act, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Emergencies can happen anywhere at any time, and in those moments every second counts. When a family calls 911, they should never be met with silence.

During major disasters, we have seen communications fail, and too often we are left without clear answers about what went wrong or how to prevent it from happening again.

That is why I am proud to lead the Emergency Reporting Act, a bipartisan bill, with Congressman Bilirakis that helps fix this. My bill directs the FCC to report after natural disasters on the extent to which people couldn't reach 911 and to recommend ways to improve outage reporting, resiliency, and coordination with State and local officials.

It also addresses unreported outages, so 911 call centers and first responders aren't left in the dark when services are disrupted.

I am really glad that we are advancing this bill today alongside other bipartisan efforts to strengthen our emergency communications systems and save lives.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill.

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