FCC’s Barnett earns his stripes in battle over safety network

In the spring of 2010, Jamie Barnett found himself in a bureaucratic mess. The longtime Navy admiral was caught in the middle of a protracted Washington battle between major public safety organizations and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Barnett, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau chief, had spent nearly a year with his division crafting a plan to build a nationwide communications network for police and firefighters. But just as soon as the FCC’s plan was released, a backlash began. In a perhaps unprecedented show of unity, almost every public safety group in the country rose up against the proposal, hoping instead to secure more airwaves through an alternate plan. “We did a cost model and came down where we did,” Barnett said, noting that the lower cost of FCC’s plan could help ensure the success of the network if the project weren't granted federal funding — which Congress is still debating and which public safety groups still have not been granted through legislation. “I certainly don't want to see a situation where only the states or cities that are wealthy can pay for [the network],” Barnett said. The fight played out at the White House and at the FCC and is still raging on Capitol Hill as the sides try to come to a decision before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.