The record

LegislationLegislation· Sep 2025
S 725 Passed Senate — in House

Sponsored by Amy Klobuchar (D)

Enhancing First Response Act

Requires FCC reports on communications outages during disasters and 911 system performance.

Tradeoff

Directs federal agencies to study and report on communications failures during emergencies, with no direct spending authorized. Requires the Office of Management and Budget to reclassify 911 dispatchers as protective service workers within 30 days of enactment.

What's in it

See official bill text

Costs $1 million over 2025-2030, with negligible net cost to the federal government if the FCC increases fee collections to offset implementation expenses.

The $1 million is just the federal administrative cost for the FCC to conduct hearings and issue reports—the actual policy impact is a small increase in fees paid by telecommunications companies and entities that use FCC-regulated services, which remains well below the legal threshold for significant private-sector mandates.

S. 725, Enhancing First Response Act · Aug 2025

Passed the Senate by on September 10, 2025 — now in the House.

  1. Senate

    Introduced

    (Feb 25, 2025)

  2. Senate

    Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation(Feb 25, 2025)

  3. Senate

    The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation voted to send it to the floor

    Reported(Apr 30, 2025)

    Committee report S. Rept. 119-59.

  4. Senate

    Passage of the bill

    Passed by (Sep 10, 2025)

    No individual votes were recorded.

  5. House

    Received from the Senate

    Received(Sep 11, 2025)