Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Democrats to craft bill to help public-safety interoperability

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:01:12 -0400

Democrats to craft bill to help public-safety interoperability

by Heather Forsgren Weaver
July 18, 2003

WASHINGTON

House Democrats are preparing a bill that would give first responders access to
spectrum to help with interoperable communications. 

“Democrats will fight to ensure that first responders will have the equipment they
need to respond to terrorist attacks. We will ensure that first responders have
the communications gear to be able to talk to one another during a crisis,” said
Rep. Jim Turner (D-Texas), ranking member of the House Select Committee on
Homeland Security. 

Turner hopes to introduce his bill before Congress recesses for its August break. 

Other Democrats also expressed concerns about the continuing lack of
first-responder interoperable communications during a hearing Thursday afternoon
by the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. 

In his written statement, Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), chairman of the National
Governors Association Homeland-Security Task Force, mentioned the public-safety
radio incompatibility problem. 

“You have all heard the anecdotes that are beginning to circulate of communities
side-by-side that purchase incompatible radio equipment and cannot talk with each
other when responding to multi-jurisdictional emergencies,” said Romney. 

Even though Romney did not verbally make the above statement, Rep. Curt Weldon
(R-Penn.) took him to task about the issue and launched into a tirade at the
second panel of witnesses. 

Weldon has been working for years to get more spectrum for public-safety
interoperable communications. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 allocated 24
megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band (on TV channels 60-69) to public safety,
but broadcasters were given a loophole that allows them to stay in the band. 

Broadcasters must leave the band by Dec. 31, 2006, or when 85 percent of the homes
in their viewing areas are capable of receiving digital broadcasts, whichever is
later. 

Weldon has introduced legislation to take away the loophole and require
broadcasters to vacate the band by 2007. 

Unfortunately, Weldon and his supporters have run headlong into the powerful
broadcast lobby. Weldon’s frustration was obvious at the hearing when he came down
hard on Romney and Jamie Metzl, senior fellow and coordinator for
homeland-security programs at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

“The fire service is older than America, and now Nobel laureates are going to come
in and tell the fire chief how to keep his community safe,” railed Weldon. “Maybe
it is because our Nobel laureates don't want to take on the networks about
public-safety spectrum.” 

Metzl appeared at the hearing to present a study that was released late last month
that said first-responders need $98.4 billion to meet current needs. 

The report was created by a blue-ribbon panel, which also identified that the
funding process was too complicated. 

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=14353

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