VoIP/911 Legislation Update

You may know that some legislation isn’t passed by Congress directly, but becomes part of more politically critical legislation as an amendment or “rider.” That’s exactly what is happening to VoIP/911 legislation being considered now by House-Senate committees after both houses passed different versions of a bill that would add requirements for VoIP providers to directly link to PSAPs. In this case, Congress will be taking their pre-election break by Sunday, and legislators are working hard to get a port security bill passed–along with the VoIP/911 provisions or not. There has been recent talk that the VoIP/911 language would be dropped entirely, but as of Thursday night it’s still in the bill. Find copies of the H.R. 4954 here.