Remarks Of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai At "911 Goes To Washington"

The Federal Communications Commission takes an all-of-the-above approach to public safety, so in addition to meeting our statutory obligations, the Commission is pursuing its own initiatives to strengthen emergency calling. One issue we took on in 2018 was the problem of “misrouted” 911 calls from wireless phones. Another challenge on the horizon is identifying a wireless 911 caller’s vertical location in multistory buildings. The last issue I want to hit on is one that makes me and a lot of other people angry: 911 fee diversion. Each year, the FCC submits a report to Congress on this issue. And each year, we see that a small but significant number of states continue to divert resources that should go to 911 but don’t. In light of the fact that this is the tenth iteration of this report and we still see states diverting funds, it’s clear that transparency alone isn’t enough to shame the offending states into doing the right thing. I’m ready and willing to work with Congress and other stakeholders to make sure that all public safety communications fees strengthen the public safety communications system.