First Responders need Better Communication

[Commentary] Emergency personnel and first responders must be able to communicate with one another during natural disasters and other crises. Significant progress has been made since the attacks on Sept. 11 revealed problems in our public safety communications infrastructure, but as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita demonstrated we have more work to do. Many first responders still cannot talk with one another because their radios and communications networks are not compatible. The public-safety community operates on 60,000 individual systems and has 3 million public-safety operators. Coordinating these systems and users is a great challenge. Achieving true interoperability will require several things, among them coordination, planning, training, expert equipment, proper standards and funding. One initiative that will improve this situation is the DTV bill our committee is working on, which will be considered later this month. This bill will set a specific date by which broadcasters will be required to turn over 24 megahertz of analog spectrum in the 700-megahertz band. A portion of this spectrum will be exclusively dedicated to interoperability. Our committee is dedicated to achieving true communications interoperability, and we are doing our part to ensure those first to the scene in a crisis have the resources they need. In the reconciliation bill, we will propose to set aside $1 billion to provide the money needed to acquire interoperable equipment. The bill will be marked up this week in committee and considered by the Budget Committee on Oct. 25. Providing both the spectrum and the money needed to buy the radios to utilize the spectrum will be major steps forward in achieving the interoperability our first responders need.