WASHINGTON-Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee, said late Monday evening that he likely will introduce legislation to require that money collected by states and localities for 911 upgrades be passed through directly for those upgrades.
“You even pay a little bit on your phone bill that goes into upgrade and renovate these communications and consolidate the dispatch centers so that when the 911 call comes in, they know exactly where they are going. That money was going to the states. Guess what the states did? They just put this money in the general treasury and said, ‘We will balance the budget this year,’ ” Burns said. “We will probably offer legislation that will make that money pass through directly to the renovation and the upgrade of our combined communications centers in our counties and towns,” he added.
Burns spoke at a broadband summit sponsored by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Education and Research Foundation and the National Exchange Carrier Association.
The Federal Communications Commission is spending Tuesday discussing 911-deployment challenges.
