Senate Passes National Legislation Officially Recognizing 9-1-1 Operators as Members of the First Responders System

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, celebrated Senate passage of the Enhancing First Response Act, which officially recognizes the lifesaving, critical work of 9-1-1 operators by reclassifying them as part of the first responders system. The State of Washington made this change in 2022, leading to a statewide training and certification process and improved retention.

"911 operators answer the most important calls of our lives," said Sen. Cantwell. "This bill recognizes their public service and life-saving actions by classifying them as part of the first responder system. My home state of Washington has helped lead the way on this issue, classifying 911 operators as first responders in 2022. I thank Senators Klobuchar and Blackburn for their leadership on this issue."

Each year, 9-1-1 operators handle over 240 million emergency calls, averaging 600,000 calls per day. Often the first point of contact during a crisis, operators provide immediate instructions for CPR, gather vital information, and coordinate the dispatch of police, fire and medical units. Their quick thinking and specialized training can mean the difference between life and death before physical responders arrive on the scene.

The legislation was introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and in addition to Sen. Cantwell, was co-sponsored by Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Angus King (I-Maine), John Thune (R-S.D.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

Specifically, the Enhancing First Response Act would:

• Update the classification of 9-1-1 dispatchers from "clerical workers" to "protective service" workers in the federal Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) to better reflect the life-saving work they perform each day. The SOC is a tool used by federal agencies to classify the workforce into useful, occupational categories.
• Require the FCC to issue a report after major natural disasters on the extent to which people were unable to reach 9-1-1 during the disaster and subsequent recovery efforts, and make recommendations to improve the resiliency of 9-1-1 systems to prevent future service disruptions.
• Require the FCC to study the unreported 9-1-1 outages and develop recommendations to improve outage reporting and communication between mobile carriers experiencing network outages and 9-1-1 centers.
• Require the FCC to report on the extent to which multi-line telephone system manufacturers and vendors have complied with Kari's Law, which Senator Klobuchar worked to pass into law in 2018 and requires the manufacturers of multi-line telephone systems to create systems that allow callers to reach 9-1-1 without dialing a prefix or postfix.

The full text of the bill is available HERE.

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