News

Blackburn Praises Commerce Committee’s Passage of Her Bills to Protect Consumers in the Online Ticket Marketplace and Enhance 9-1-1 Emergency Response System

May 5, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) released the following statement after her bipartisan Mitigating Automated Internet Networks for (MAIN) Event Ticketing Act to strengthen consumer protections in the online ticket marketplace and Enhancing First Response Act to update the classification of 9-1-1 dispatchers passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee:

“Fans shouldn’t have to fight bots and scammers when trying to buy tickets online, and I’m thrilled the Commerce Committee has moved the MAIN Event Ticketing Act one step closer to becoming law so we can protect consumers in the online ticket marketplace. The Commerce Committee also passed my bipartisan Enhancing First Response Act, which would make important updates to our 9-1-1 emergency reporting system and prevent service disruptions,” said Senator Blackburn. 

MAIN EVENT TICKETING ACT

  • In 2016, President Obama signed Senator Blackburn’s legislation, the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, into law, which prohibits ticket scalpers from using software to purchase high volumes of tickets.
    • Creating reporting requirements whereby online ticket sellers must report successful bot attacks to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC);
    • Requiring the FTC to share consumer complaints submitted through their website to state attorneys general;
    • Enacting data security requirements for online ticket sellers and requires the sharing of information between the FTC and law enforcement; and
    • Requiring a report to Congress on BOTS enforcement. 
  • The MAIN Event Ticketing Act is co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.).  

Click here for bill text.

ENHANCING FIRST RESPONSE ACT

  • The Enhancing First Response Act would:
    • Update the classification of 9-1-1 dispatchers in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) from clerical workers to protective service workers to better reflect life-saving work performed by them each day;
    • Require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to hold an annual hearing and issue a report after major natural disasters on 9-1-1 unreachability and make recommendations to improve the resiliency of 9-1-1 systems to prevent future service disruptions;
    • Require the FCC to study unreported 9-1-1 outages and develop recommendations to improve outage reporting and communication between mobile carriers experiencing network outages and 9-1-1 centers.
  • The Enhancing First Response Act is sponsored by U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

Click here for bill text.

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