WASHINGTON-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Thursday that he intends to create a new Homeland Security and Public Safety Bureau that will include many of the issues, including 911, public-safety communications and other priority emergency communications, currently being handled by the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
“The bureau will coordinate public safety, national security and disaster management activities within the FCC,” Martin said at a special FCC open meeting held in Atlanta and aired over the Internet.
RCR Wireless News first reported Martin’s goal of creating a homeland-security bureau in July.
Martin did not say what would happen to the rest of the wireless bureau’s portfolio, but recent changes in the front office of the wireless bureau continue to point to a significantly decreased policy role for the bureau.
Peter Tenhula and Scott Delacourt, both deputy chiefs of the wireless bureau, recently were reassigned to other jobs at the FCC. Both Tenhula and Delacourt had oversight of wireless policy and regulation.
