WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission Friday created its long anticipated Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, which will take over various functions and issues from seven other entities within the commission.
“Many of the problems we saw during Hurricane Katrina were consistent across platforms,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters following the meeting. “Those issues have to be considered in a comprehensive fashion.”
The new bureau, which is expected to begin operations over the next several weeks following congressional approval and completion of negotiations with the FCC’s labor union, will have a large portfolio of issues including 911, digital wiretap, priority access, emergency alert, communications-infrastructure protection, network security and reliability, and disaster management, planning, coordination and response.
Additionally, the new bureau is set to handle the licensing functions for public-safety agencies, but licensing functions for critical-infrastructure and private-wireless entities are to remain under the jurisdiction of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
“The FCC is looking to make sure public-safety issues get full attention,” said Anthony Dale, acting deputy director of the FCC’s Office of the Managing Director.
Dale said that staffing numbers had not been finalized but he expected the bureau to have less than 150 employees.
With the creation of the new bureau, it becomes even less clear what policy issues the wireless bureau will handle. With the exception of auction policy, Dale could not say what, if any, policy issues would remain within WTB. Other large policy issues of interest to the wireless industry—including the protection of customer call records—are being handled by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau.
RCR Wireless News first reported in July that Martin wanted to eliminate the wireless bureau, move its functions to other bureaus and perhaps create a new bureau. Martin announced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that he intended to create the new Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.
Also not announced were the names of bureau chiefs for either the new bureau or the wireless bureau. Catherine Seidel has been acting WTB chief since last March.
