Thompson, Eshoo announce PHONE Act approved by subcommittee

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, announced Wednesday that Thompson’s bipartisan PHONE Act has been referred by the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology to the full committee for consideration.

It’s the final step before a vote on the House floor. H.R. 1289, the PHONE Act, would allow residents who lost their homes to natural disasters, such as wildfires, to keep their phone numbers at no cost to them while they rebuild, according to a press release from Thompson’s office.

“Disaster survivors who are working to rebuild deserve every piece of normalcy we can give them, and yet current law prohibits phone companies from letting people keep their phone numbers while they rebuild their homes,” Thompson said in the same release from his office. “That’s why I am proud to see my bill to solve this problem pass the subcommittee. This bill will let survivors, like those in my district, keep their phone numbers. I will continue working with Representative Eshoo to get this bill approved by the full committee and brought up for a vote on the House floor.”

For more information about the bill, visit www. congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1289.

Thompson represents California’s 5th Congressional District which includes the cities of Vallejo and Benicia in Solano County, all of Napa and parts of Contra Costa, Lake, and Sonoma counties.

Eshoo represents California’s 18th Congressional District, which includes Palo Alto, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Stanford, Los Altos, Mountain View, Los Altos Hills, Campbell, Saratoga, Los Gatos and parts of San Jose, as well as much of the Santa Cruz Mountains down to the Pacific Ocean.