Thompson Applauds Passage of Emergency Communications Act
Congressman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, issued the following statement regarding today’s passage by the House of Representatives of H.R. 5852, “The 21st Century Emergency Communications Act of 2006,” which will improve coordination among Federal, State, territorial, local and tribal governments as it relates to voice, data, and other emerging technologies.
“The Committee on Homeland Security has heard from more than 25 expert witnesses in the more than six hearings held on the operable and interoperable challenges of emergency communications. All in all, the message from the witnesses was the need for leadership and funding for the deployment of an interoperable emergency communications system.
“Today, Congress has finally decided to show one of these two things by placing this legislation on the calendar. The timing – days before Members go home for the August recess and only a couple of months before the fall elections – does not escape me. Despite this convenience of timing, I’m grateful that we are moving forward and finally doing something to help the men and women on the frontlines of our homeland security efforts.
“This has been a long time coming. In less then two months, our Nation will mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. On that fateful day, Americans learned that the nation was vulnerable to an attack that killed almost 3,000 people. I shook my head when I learned that New York City firefighters never received the police warning to evacuate the North Tower after the South Tower’s collapse because their radio system was not interoperable with police communications.
“Four years later, as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast – the same story emerged - firefighters and police in the region didn’t have the means to communicate.
“Time and again, the lack of interoperable communication has significantly hindered the ability of our nation’s first responders to successfully do their jobs. This legislation will move us one step closer to fixing the interoperability crisis that has plagued our nation for decades.
“However, all our efforts here today will be for naught if we do not provide funding for the development and deployment of a nationwide emergency communications system. It saddens me that we didn’t fix that problem in this bill today. Instead, Congress has left our financially strapped local communities and first responders to foot the bill in order to implement these emergency communications systems,” said Rep. Thompson.
For More Information:
Please contact Dena Graziano or Todd Levett at (202) 226-2616.
