FCC Proposes Rules to Promote Reliable Access to 988 Lifeline

The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to help ensure that the public has access to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline if a service outage occurs. The proposed rules would require 988 service providers to report outages that potentially affect 988 services, which would hasten service restoration and enable officials to inform the public of alternate ways to contact the 988 Lifeline. To address issues of a nationwide service outage that lasted several hours, making the service inaccessible to voice callers, the FCC proposed rules to ensure that HHS’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the 988 Lifeline administrator, and the Commission itself receive timely and actionable information about 988 service outages. The Commission also seeks comment on a number of items related to its proposals.