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'First Responders' As First Priority
by Greta Wodele
Following Hurricane Katrina's destruction in the Gulf Coast, federal lawmakers are renewing calls for the government to fix a longstanding communication problem for emergency workers. The problem prevented "first responders" to emergencies and local officials from communicating with each other in the crucial hours after the hurricane.
In Louisiana and Mississippi traditional and cellular telephone systems failed. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., added last week that New Orleans police officers and emergency workers were sharing one channel of radio frequency for days.
The issue most recently became contentious following the terrorist attacks four years ago Sunday, when New York City firefighters could not connect electronically during rescue missions into the World Trade Center towers. Several of them died in the collapse. Since then, Congress and the Bush administration have taken numerous actions to fix the problem, including establishing a homeland security network connecting federal officials with state and local officials.
But many lawmakers argued last week that Hurricane Katrina was the first test of those new systems, and the government has failed to remedy the situation. "Congress has appropriated funds for interoperability of communications," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., after touring the devastated Gulf region. Yet, from what I saw, there was total failure. Why? We must look at it. We must investigate. We've got to do better."
A Renewed Push For Interoperability
Lawmakers and first-responder groups plan to use the incident to push previously drafted bills, as well as new proposals to connect emergency workers across the country. This year, lawmakers have introduced eight bills on the subject.
In the Senate, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and ranking Democrat Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut have proposed $400 million in grants to state and local governments to improve the capability and sustainability of the equipment during an emergency. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she would offer an amendment to give the department $5 billion more for such interoperability grants. The Senate rejected a similar amendment by Stabenow in July when it considered Homeland Security Department's fiscal 2006 spending measure.
In the House, Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said interoperability is an $18 billion problem, and he has legislation to create a permanent federal grant program to fund interoperable radio platforms. "This is not new technology," he said. "The military has had it for a while." Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., introduced similar legislation, H.R. 1251.
Advocates for first responders also are pressuring Congress to approve legislation that would force television broadcasters to transition from analog spectrum to digital technology. Once the transition is complete, some of the airwaves used for analog signals would go to first responders.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, plans to add his language on the issue to a budget bill on the agenda this fall. The legislation would require broadcasters to move off the 108 megahertz of analog spectrum by Dec. 31, 2008. On that date, first responders would receive 24 megahertz of the airwaves.
Emergency workers for decades have said they need additional spectrum because during a crisis they have had to operate on limited and crowded frequencies. "We need a hard date [for the transition] so we can plan these systems and alleviate congestion," said Bob Gurss, director of legal and government affairs for the Association for Public-Safety Communications Officials.
Matt Walton, chairman of the Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC), said Congress also should require viewable and alterable "open source" codes for industry computer systems. EIC was formed in 2002 and consists of 60 private and public organizations to develop and adopt standards for interoperable systems. "Open standards provide the quickest and least expensive solution to the related challenges of sharing data between the myriad systems that we have today as well as accommodating the new systems that will emerge in the future," Walton argued.
A Post-9/11 Progress Report
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress has provided some $14 billion in state grants for first responders to prepare for, prevent and respond to attacks. States are can use the money for communications equipment and advanced technologies that would work during a crisis.
Next year, the Homeland Security Department plans to create an interoperability and compatibility office to consolidate and oversee federal efforts. The House in May endorsed $41.5 million for the new office. The Senate, which passed a similar version of the appropriations bill in July, backed only $15 million. President Bush requested $20.5 million. The two chambers plan to negotiate the final number this fall.
House appropriators directed the division to spend $10 million to expand the RapidCom program, which currently is helping 10 urban cities with the highest terrorism vulnerabilities connect existing technologies.
The department also has established a nationwide program called SAFECOM to ensure that all public-safety officials can communicate across jurisdictions. That initiative has proven challenging because U.S. communications networks are vast and disparate.
Local communities buy 90 percent of their technology, which requires federal officials to consider immense capabilities and local procedures, according to Homeland Security testimony to Congress. David Boyd, director of the SAFECOM project, said last September that it would take 15 to 20 years to connect the 600,000 emergency workers across the country.
The Homeland Security Department plans to test a national all-hazards alert and warning system via digital television, the Internet, satellite radio, cellular telephones, BlackBerry handheld devices and other technologies.
The department, along with the FCC and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this year successfully deployed a digital alert system in the Washington region that the agencies would like to deploy nationwide next year. The project expanded upon NOAA's established radio weather-warning system, which covers all 50 states and U.S. territories at all times. In June 2004, NOAA and Homeland Security agreed to give department officials access to the NOAA radio network to send all-hazard alerts and warnings.
Toward A Nationwide Network
The department is using the satellite of the Public Broadcasting Service -- with the help of commercial broadcasters, satellite radio, the cellular industry, technology developers, pager providers, cable operators and others -- to transmit various alerts and warnings. And it is finalizing an agreement with state officials to test an Internet alert portal similar to the AMBER Alert system for missing and abducted children.
In 2002, Homeland Security further created an always-operational center to receive and disseminate data across the federal government and to state and local officials. To do so, officials built the homeland security information network -- a secret-level connection from the federal government to state emergency operations centers. The department plans this year to expand the network to law enforcement agencies in approximately one-third of all U.S. counties.
"HSIN is the [department's] principal tool for information sharing and collaboration with federal, state, local, tribal and private-sector agencies engaged in securing the homeland and in responding to incidents of national significance that impact critical infrastructure," the president's fiscal 2006 budget request for the department said.
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