WASHINGTON-Congress is moving toward developing a national strategy for interoperable first-responder communications, though it remains unclear whether lawmakers can drum up the considerable federal funding needed to enable firefighters, law enforcement, medics and others to talk to each other during emergencies.
A House panel last week approved legislation giving first-responder communications, telecommunications and cyber security higher organizational stature at the Department of Homeland Security. The changes were included in a sweeping measure designed to improve national emergency response problems exposed in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year and in advance of the start of a new hurricane season next month.
The measure, passed 28-0 by the House Committee on Homeland Security, creates a DHS assistant secretary for emergency communications, who will be responsible for helping establish and maintain interoperable communications capabilities at the federal, state and local levels. A DHS office of interoperability and compatibility would support the creation of national voluntary consensus standards for interoperable emergency communications, establish a comprehensive research and development program and work with the private sector to better enable law enforcement, firefighters, medics and other first responders from different jurisdictions to communicate with each other during emergencies.
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), largely responsible for key public-safety wireless provisions in the bill, withdrew an amendment that sought $5 billion to help fund the purchase of equipment for interoperable emergency communications around the country. Asked later why she pulled the amendment, Lowey said her amendment did not have the votes to pass it. Lowey said she wanted to make a point about the financial resources required to enhance public-safety wireless interoperability.
“Since 9/11, we’ve made very little progress [on interoperability],” said Lowey during the bill’s markup. “We’ll never know how many lives might have been saved” if first responders had interoperable communications after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. While 9/11 highlighted the lackluster state of first-responder communications interoperability, the problem has existed for decades.
A budget bill passed by Congress late last year earmarked $1 billion for interoperability funding. But David Boyd, head of communications interoperability at DHS’ Safecom, has testified before Congress the cost of fixing the hole in interoperable emergency communications could exceed $60 billion.
“If we don’t deal with [interoperability] we will not be able to field effective disaster response,” said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), a House Homeland Security Committee member and ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee.
The House legislation also creates an assistant secretary for cyber security and telecommunications at DHS. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) was responsible for getting into the bill a high-profile position that high-tech and telecom sectors have lobbied for in recent years.
“The fact of the matter is this: Our government’s ability to prepare and respond to a disaster is fatally flawed,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (R-N.J.), a House Homeland Security Committee member. “We’ve seen the chilling consequences of these deficiencies. It is our moral imperative to fix the situation.”
The lack of interoperable emergency communications was prominent in a Hurricane Katrina Report released earlier this month by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
“The lack of an interoperable data system often prevented medical personnel from obtaining information about patients, even if their facility had suffered no hurricane damage,” the 700-plus page report stated. In another section, the report declared, “The lack of interoperability communications resulted in an inability to coordinate search-and-rescue operations and difficulty in coordinating law enforcement operations with the military and with other law enforcement agencies.”
Communications problems also were underscored in a Government Accountability Office report last week on the military response to Hurricane Katrina.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is expected to introduce a bill similar to the House’s. The Senate bill is likely to mandate steps to establish a national infrastructure for first-responder wireless interoperability.
Interoperability legislative activities are moving forward on Capitol Hill as the Federal Communications Commission examines Cyren Call Communications Corp.’s proposal to create a national broadband public-safety network with interoperability capability that the private sector would build and share with first responders using 30 megahertz of spectrum at 700 MHz set for auction by January 2008. The mobile-phone industry opposes the plan.
