WASHINGTON-It will take leadership from the White House and Congress for public safety to achieve interoperable communications and that leadership has been lacking, charged Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chair of the Congressional Law Enforcement Caucus.
“The administration talks a great game” regarding first-responder communications, but then does not budget the money for it, Stupak said, noting that funding for modernizing public-safety communications has fallen well short of the estimated $18 billion needed.
Stupak, sponsor of a bill to use auction revenues for public-safety communications, did not offer a lot of hope that Congress would act on public-safety related legislation this year.
Speaking with reporters after his appearance at the New Millennium Research Council seminar on public-safety communication, Stupak said Senate Democrats “with the blessing of Sen. John Kerry” (D-Mass.), presidential nominee, attempted to pass an amendment for money for public-safety interoperability, but were unsuccessful.
Following Stupak’s appearance, several panels debated technical and policy issues, with most experts agreeing there are few technical issues, but policy and funding are major impediments to public-safety interoperability. Indeed, one federal government expert said no reliable estimation of how much it would cost for nationwide public-safety interoperability is available, but that Stupak’s estimate of $18 billion was way low.
