I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 286
To amend title 18, United States Code, to penalize false communications
to cause an emergency response, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2025
Mr. K
USTOFF(for himself, Mr. RUTHERFORD, Mr. MOSKOWITZ, Mr.
C
UELLAR, Mr. MAGAZINER, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. EZELL, and Ms. LEE
of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to penalize false
communications to cause an emergency response, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preserving Safe Com-4
munities by Ending Swatting Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FALSE COMMUNICATIONS TO CAUSE AN EMER-6
GENCY RESPONSE. 7
Section 1038 of title 18, United States Code, is 8
amended— 9
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•HR 286 IH
(1) in subsection (a)(1), to read as follows: 1
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Whoever engages in any 2
conduct with intent to convey false or misleading in-3
formation— 4
‘‘(A) under circumstances where such in-5
formation may reasonably be believed and 6
where such information indicates that an activ-7
ity has taken, is taking, or will take place that 8
would constitute a violation of chapter 2, 10, 9
11B, 39, 40, 44, 111, or 113B of this title, sec-10
tion 236 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 11
U.S.C. 2284), or section 46502, the second sen-12
tence of section 46504, section 46505(b)(3) or 13
(c), section 46506 if homicide or attempted 14
homicide is involved, or section 60123(b) of title 15
49; or 16
‘‘(B) using the mail or any facility or 17
means of interstate or foreign commerce, under 18
circumstances where such information may rea-19
sonably be expected to cause an emergency re-20
sponse and the information indicates that con-21
duct has taken, is taking, or will take place that 22
constitutes a crime under State or Federal law 23
or endangers public health or safety or the 24
health or safety of any person, 25
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•HR 286 IH
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not 1
more than 5 years, or both. If serious bodily injury 2
results, the defendant shall be fined under this title 3
or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and 4
if death results, the defendant shall be fined under 5
this title or imprisoned for any number of years up 6
to life, or both.’’; 7
(2) in subsection (b), to read as follows: 8
‘‘(b) C
IVILACTION.—Whoever engages in any con-9
duct with intent to convey false or misleading informa-10
tion— 11
‘‘(1) under circumstances where such informa-12
tion may reasonably be believed and where such in-13
formation indicates that an activity has taken, is 14
taking, or will take place that would constitute a vio-15
lation of chapter 2, 10, 11B, 39, 40, 44, 111, or 16
113B of this title, section 236 of the Atomic Energy 17
Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2284), or section 46502, the 18
second sentence of section 46504, section 46505 19
(b)(3) or (c), section 46506 if homicide or attempted 20
homicide is involved, or section 60123(b) of title 49; 21
or 22
‘‘(2) using the mail or any facility or means of 23
interstate or foreign commerce, under circumstances 24
where such information may reasonably be expected 25
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•HR 286 IH
to cause an emergency response and the information 1
indicates that conduct has taken, is taking, or will 2
take place that constitutes a crime under State or 3
Federal law or endangers public health or safety or 4
the health or safety of any person, 5
is liable in a civil action to any party incurring expenses 6
incident to any emergency or investigative response to that 7
conduct, for those expenses.’’; and 8
(3) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(e) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘emer-10
gency response’ means any deployment of personnel or 11
equipment, order or advice to evacuate, or issuance of a 12
warning to the public or a threatened person, organiza-13
tion, or establishment, by an agency of the United States 14
or a State charged with public safety functions, including 15
any agency charged with detecting, preventing, or inves-16
tigating crimes or with fire or rescue functions, or by a 17
private not-for-profit organization that provides fire or 18
rescue functions.’’. 19
Æ
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