House rejects cellphone bill prompted by the murder of Overland Park's Kelsey Smith

In something of a surprise, the U.S. House on Monday rejected legislation that would require cellphone companies to quickly provide law enforcement with users’ location data during an emergency.

The measure, called the Kelsey Smith Act, was named for an Overland Park teenager abducted from a suburban store and murdered almost nine years ago.

A majority of the House supported the bill, but it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

Its sponsor, U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, said he would try again — under different rules.

“I look forward to the bill being brought back to (the) House floor when a simple majority vote can get it passed,” he said in a statement Monday evening.

The bill debated Monday would require cellphone firms to quickly provide authorities with location data in cases where serious injury or death are a possibility, or when a user calls 911.

Smith’s body was found four days after she disappeared, after her cellphone provider used so-called “ping” data to determine the location of her phone. Her parents said the four-day delay in obtaining the data was far too long, and they’ve worked since her death to speed up the process.

Nearly half the states now have some version of the requirement, but Yoder said Monday the federal government needed to step in.

“A federal framework is needed to save lives across the entire country, not just in a patchwork of states,” he said.

Some Democrats said the law might affect users’ privacy and wanted consumer protections inserted into the bill.

The vote was 229-158. It needed a two-thirds majority because it was considered under a House rule generally reserved for noncontroversial matters.

It isn’t clear when the bill might be brought back to the House floor. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 6:27 PM with the headline "House rejects cellphone bill prompted by the murder of Overland Park's Kelsey Smith."