Barrasso, Luján 988 Bill Advances in Senate

U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat from New Mexico, applauded the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee for recently passing their bipartisan legislation to increase the efficiency of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline through assessing challenges to transmitting geolocation information. In 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took action to require service providers to route phone calls to 988 to the nearest call center based on geographic location. Last July, the FCC took steps to require geo-routing for texts. Previously, calls and texts were routed based on the phone’s area code, often resulting in a geographic mismatch.

The 988 Lifeline Location Improvement Act would instruct the FCC to open a Notice of Inquiry to address the challenges to transmitting geolocation information with calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and direct the FCC to consider legal authorities, protection of consumer privacy, feasibility, technical implementation standards, assessment of funds, technical challenges for callers with disabilities, and current technology available.

The bill would also require the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study and submit to Congress a report on the opportunities and challenges related to implementing geolocation in consultation with representatives from telecommunications, emergency centers, 911 service providers, small and rural local governments, community mental health centers, and individuals who have experience providing services for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have hearing loss.