WASHINGTON-House Democrats are preparing a bill that would give first responders access to spectrum to help with interoperable communications.
“Democrats will fight to ensure that first responders will have the equipment they need to respond to terrorist attacks. We will ensure that first responders have the communications gear to be able to talk to one another during a crisis,” said Rep. Jim Turner (D-Texas), ranking member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
Turner hopes to introduce his bill before Congress recesses for its August break.
Other Democrats also expressed concerns about the continuing lack of first-responder interoperable communications during a hearing Thursday afternoon by the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
In his written statement, Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), chairman of the National Governors Association Homeland-Security Task Force, mentioned the public-safety radio incompatibility problem.
“You have all heard the anecdotes that are beginning to circulate of communities side-by-side that purchase incompatible radio equipment and cannot talk with each other when responding to multi-jurisdictional emergencies,” said Romney.
Even though Romney did not verbally make the above statement, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Penn.) took him to task about the issue and launched into a tirade at the second panel of witnesses.
Weldon has been working for years to get more spectrum for public-safety interoperable communications. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 allocated 24 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band (on TV channels 60-69) to public safety, but broadcasters were given a loophole that allows them to stay in the band.
Broadcasters must leave the band by Dec. 31, 2006, or when 85 percent of the homes in their viewing areas are capable of receiving digital broadcasts, whichever is later.
Weldon has introduced legislation to take away the loophole and require broadcasters to vacate the band by 2007.
Unfortunately, Weldon and his supporters have run headlong into the powerful broadcast lobby. Weldon’s frustration was obvious at the hearing when he came down hard on Romney and Jamie Metzl, senior fellow and coordinator for homeland-security programs at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“The fire service is older than America, and now Nobel laureates are going to come in and tell the fire chief how to keep his community safe,” railed Weldon. “Maybe it is because our Nobel laureates don’t want to take on the networks about public-safety spectrum.”
Metzl appeared at the hearing to present a study that was released late last month that said first-responders need $98.4 billion to meet current needs.
The report was created by a blue-ribbon panel, which also identified that the funding process was too complicated.
