WASHINGTON-The Bush administration last week said it opposed new grant money for the deployment of wireless enhanced 911.
“The administration believes Congress should consider more efficient and more cost-effective means to address this issue, rather than establishing a new grant program,” reads a letter from Theodore Kassinger, general counsel of the Department of Commerce, and Rosalind Knapp, deputy general counsel of the Department of Transportation.
The letter from Kassinger and Knapp was delivered on the eve of the House Commerce Committee passage of a bill that would authorize $100 million annually for five years for grants to public-safety answering points to implement wireless E911 unless a PSAP’s state has diverted 911 funds collected from consumers for other purposes.
The $100-million grant program is the carrot of an envisioned carrot-and-stick program to get PSAPs moving on E911 implementation.
“Many of us buy cell phones to provide security in case of an emergency, but most Americans would be shocked to know that if they called 911 on their cell phone, only 10 percent of our nation’s emergency call centers would be able to precisely locate them,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) in a statement. Eshoo is a sponsor of the bill and the leading house advocate for E911, but she was unable to attend the markup due to a family illness.
Since the mid-1990s when E911 became a concern, many states have established cost-recovery mechanisms for E911 deployment that collect surcharges from wireless consumers. This money is then used to reimburse PSAPs and sometimes carriers for implementing E911. But just as the technology and the carriers were finally getting on board, many states faced budget shortfalls so they began using the E911 funds for other purposes or to balance their budgets.
The E911 Congressional Caucus, chaired by Eshoo and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) in the House and Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee, and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the Senate, this year devised legislation that would help PSAPs pay for implementing E911 but only if their states stopped using the E911 money collected from consumers for other purposes.
Without the carrot, the stick goes away.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) agreed that the Bush administration’s position on the grant program is a poison pill for the bill, but he said they would look at all options the administration suggests.
“The administration shares the committee’s concern regarding states’ diversion of funds originally collected from taxpayers for E911 implementation. However, we believe the issue is better addressed by perhaps making existing grant funds that are made available for the express purpose of E911 contingent upon states and localities not diverting E911 funds collected at the state or local level,” wrote Kassinger and Knapp.
The existing grant programs suggested by Kassinger and Knapp include the local law enforcement block grant, the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program and the COPS program.
Shimkus, another sponsor of the bill, vowed to work through the administration’s concerns and bring the bill to the House floor this month, although he appeared skeptical that the grants suggested would do the trick.
“It is not every day what we do can save lives,” Tauzin told reporters following the Commerce Committee’s action. “This is one of those things that will save lives.”
The one thing that Shimkus seemingly has been able to accomplish is to goad the Federal Communications Commission into looking into the issue of compliance by small rural carriers. He has been an advocate for rural carriers concerned about the accuracy requirements established by the FCC. Rural carriers-most of which chose TDMA technology for their digital networks-cannot meet the average compliance requirements using their network-based solutions. Compliance is often difficult because towers have been built along roads in a “string of pearls” fashion, making triangulation difficult if not impossible.
At the markup hearing of the bill, Shimkus announced the FCC had responded to his concerns.
“The FCC expects to provide the Tier III carriers that have filings pending with specific information within the next few weeks regarding certain outstanding issues, such as interim relief while petitions currently before the commission are under review,” wrote FCC Chairman Michael Powell. “Each Tier III carrier faces unique deployment problems. There is, however, a commonality of technological and economic challenges. Therefore, although the FCC will be evaluating each waiver request on a case-by-case basis on its own merits, the commission staff will be able to discern general principles on which to base decisions. This approach should facilitate timely resolution.”
Tier III carriers have fewer than a half million subscribers.
