In February, with members of the Hunt family in attendance at the White House, President Trump signed H.R. 582 (known as “Kari’s Law”) on the 50th anniversary of the first 911 call being made in the United States.  

Sponsored by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), H.R. 582 passed both the House and Senate without a single vote in opposition.  You may recall that in 2015, Texas passed its own version of Kari’s Law, with significant input from THLA and the Texas lodging industry.

Multi-Line Telephone Systems (MLTS) serve multiple telephone users at a single site, often an office building, hotel, university campus, or similar locations.  On some MLTS, callers must dial an additional number—often “9”—to get an outside line to make a normal phone call, so a 911 call would require the caller to dial “9-911.”

Federal requirement effective in 2020:   The new federal version of Kari’s Law requires all multi-line telephone systems (including those in hotels) to be configured so users may directly dial 911, without the need for additional digits or prefix. In addition, the MLTS must be configured to notify a designated central point of contact when someone initiates a call to 911 using the system. The federal legislation takes effect on February 16, 2020.