New bill aims to speed $1 billion toward public-safety communications

The Senate Commerce Committee has decided President Bush’s top telecom policy adviser could use some help with his agency’s $1 billion public-safety communications interoperability grant program, the second time this week the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been subjected to congressional oversight.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and ranking member Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said the “Interoperable Emergency Communications Act” is designed to give NTIA guidance in distributing $1 billion worth of public-safety radio interoperability grants by Sept. 30.
“Every day we hear about potential threats against our nation, and it will not be long until we are again in the midst of hurricane season,” said Inouye. “The Congress must act quickly to give our first responders the tools they need to effectively do their jobs.”
In addition to giving NTIA a roadmap for making public-safety interoperability grants, the bill would allow up to $100 million of the $1 billion to be used for technology reserves. Those monies would assist emergency-response agencies in pre-positioning communications equipment in states or regional facilities that can be quickly activated in the event of a major emergency or natural disaster.
That key lawmakers feel compelled to intervene could suggest they lack confidence in NTIA chief John Kneuer’s ability to get the job done. NTIA, which already said it will rely heavily on the Department of Homeland Security to implement the public-safety interoperability grant program, has yet to make a single grant since the new fiscal year began Oct. 1.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) tried without success to nail down Kneuer on the timetable for awarding public-safety interoperability grants at his confirmation hearing last September.
Lawmakers also may be concerned about the Bush administration’s track record to date in efforts to improve public-safety communications interoperability. DHS has spent nearly $3 billion since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks toward that end, but concedes most cities and regions still lack essential technology, political consensus and infrastructure to enable first responders to communicate with each other during emergencies.
Earlier this week, Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) introduced legislation they said would help with another billion-dollar program assigned to NTIA, this one to ease the public’s transition from analog to digital TV in early 2009.
The $1 billion earmarked for interoperable public-safety communications grants will be paid for with auction revenues from the future sale of TV spectrum. TV licensees are returning the spectrum to the government as part of their move into digital.