WASHINGTON-A key Senate staffer predicted the Senate will pass a bill in the next month to create a grant program to help deploy wireless enhanced 911 services.
“A lot of members are going to engage every possible allocation of resources and personal energy to get this done. I would say sooner rather than later. This is not on your typical legislative track,” said Mike Rawson, senior policy adviser to Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee and co-chair of the E911 Caucus.
The E911 bill is a top priority for Burns, said Rawson as he appeared on a panel at the second annual “911 Goes to Washington” event sponsored by the National Emergency Number Association.
All was not good news. Jason Mahler, chief of staff to Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional E911 Caucus, warned that the bill is only an authorization bill. “Funding will not be available until late this year at the earliest,” said Mahler.
Another Democrat on the panel, James Assey, minority senior counsel of the Senate Commerce Committee, noted that the Bush budget for fiscal year 2005 did not provide for any funds for the E911.
“At the end of the day, we are going to have to find the money from somewhere,” said Assey. “I have had discussions with folks over at the Office of Management and Budget about the costs of this program and legislation. One of the things that is always trotted out is the fact that there are other funding sources for emergency communications and my questions always is, ‘how many of those were used for E911 purposes?’ and I haven’t really gotten a good answer back from that question.”
