On the recordJanuary 23, 2017
I am very grateful to Mr. Lance for his great leadership on this issue. And I appreciate the comments of my friend across the aisle, Mr. Doyle. This did pass by voice vote. One can't help but wonder: How many times has this played out that we don't know about? How many times has there been a child that tried to dial 911? How many times has a panicked adult dialed 911 not knowing? And I was in a hotel the other day where you had to dial 7 to get out. How many times has somebody been killed trying to dial 911? We don't know. There is no way to know. But we do know that this is the right thing to do. And the only reason this came forward is after the tragic loss of Kari. Her death occurred over several minutes. Normally in a town like Marshall, especially in a town like that, the police are going to be there within a minute or two when something goes on this long. It was a beating; it was a stabbing; her daughter was trying to dial. After Kari had left this world, her daughter was sitting in Hank Hunt's lap. She was crying saying: I did all I could. I kept dialing 911 and it wouldn't go through. Hank was torn up about it and got to investigating. That is when this was brought to light. When Hank brought it to my attention, we got to investigating. And we do have limits here in Congress. We are not supposed to go meddling, according to the 10th Amendment, in State and local affairs; but this is a matter of interstate communications.…
