[House Hearing, 119 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS AND
TECHNOLOGY
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 9, 2025
__________
Serial No. 119-36
Published for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
govinfo.gov/committee/house-energy
energycommerce.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
61-782 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
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COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky
Chairman
ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia Ranking Member
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida DIANA DeGETTE, Colorado
RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina JAN SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia DORIS O. MATSUI, California
GARY J. PALMER, Alabama KATHY CASTOR, Florida
NEAL P. DUNN, Florida, Vice PAUL TONKO, New York
Chairman YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York
DAN CRENSHAW, Texas RAUL RUIZ, California
JOHN JOYCE, Pennsylvania SCOTT H. PETERS, California
RANDY K. WEBER, Sr., Texas DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan
RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia MARC A. VEASEY, Texas
TROY BALDERSON, Ohio ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
RUSS FULCHER, Idaho NANETTE DIAZ BARRAGAN, California
AUGUST PFLUGER, Texas DARREN SOTO, Florida
DIANA HARSHBARGER, Tennessee KIM SCHRIER, Washington
MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS, Iowa LORI TRAHAN, Massachusetts
KAT CAMMACK, Florida LIZZIE FLETCHER, Texas
JAY OBERNOLTE, California ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, New York
JOHN JAMES, Michigan JAKE AUCHINCLOSS, Massachusetts
CLIFF BENTZ, Oregon TROY A. CARTER, Louisiana
ERIN HOUCHIN, Indiana ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina KEVIN MULLIN, California
LAUREL M. LEE, Florida GREG LANDSMAN, Ohio
NICHOLAS A. LANGWORTHY, New York JENNIFER L. McCLELLAN, Virginia
THOMAS H. KEAN, Jr., New Jersey
MICHAEL A. RULLI, Ohio
GABE EVANS, Colorado
CRAIG A. GOLDMAN, Texas
JULIE FEDORCHAK, North Dakota
------
Professional Staff
MEGAN JACKSON, Staff Director
SOPHIE KHANAHMADI, Deputy Staff Director
TIFFANY GUARASCIO, Minority Staff Director
Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina
Chairman
RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia, Vice DORIS O. MATSUI, California
Chairman Ranking Member
ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio DARREN SOTO, Florida
H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida RAUL RUIZ, California
EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia SCOTT H. PETERS, California
NEAL P. DUNN, Florida DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan
RUSS FULCHER, Idaho ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
AUGUST PFLUGER, Texas NANETTE DIAZ BARRAGAN, California
KAT CAMMACK, Florida TROY A. CARTER, Louisiana
JAY OBERNOLTE, California ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
ERIN HOUCHIN, Indiana GREG LANDSMAN, Ohio
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina JENNIFER L. McCLELLAN, Virginia
THOMAS H. KEAN, Jr., New Jersey KATHY CASTOR, Florida
CRAIG A. GOLDMAN, Texas FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey (ex
JULIE FEDORCHAK, North Dakota officio)
BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky (ex
officio)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hon. Richard Hudson, a Representative in Congress from the State
of North Carolina, opening statement........................... 1
Prepared statement........................................... 4
Hon. Doris O. Matsui, a Representative in Congress from the State
of California, opening statement............................... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 12
Hon. Brett Guthrie, a Representative in Congress from the
Commonwealth of Kentucky, opening statement.................... 14
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the
State of New Jersey, opening statement......................... 19
Prepared statement........................................... 21
Witnesses
Steven K. Newton, Emergency Management Director, Chatham County,
NC............................................................. 23
Prepared statement........................................... 26
Answers to submitted questions............................... 165
Shannon Dicus, Sheriff, San Bernardino County.................... 32
Prepared statement........................................... 34
Answers to submitted questions............................... 169
Brian Fontes, Ph.D., Former Chief Executive Officer, National
Emergency Number Association................................... 42
Prepared statement........................................... 44
Answers to submitted questions............................... 171
Randall C. Wright, Executive Director, Division of Media
Properties, College of Journalism and Communications,
University of Florida.......................................... 49
Prepared statement........................................... 52
Submitted Material
Inclusion of the following was approved by unanimous consent.
List of documents submitted for the record....................... 118
Letter of July 7, 2025, from Stephen J. Acquario, Executive
Director, New York State Association of Counties, to Senator
Ted Cruz, et al................................................ 119
Letters from North Carolina Department of Information Technology
to Mr. Hudson.................................................. 121
Letter of September 9, 2025, from Capt. Jack Varnado, President,
APCO International, to Mr. Guthrie, et al...................... 126
Statement of Chief Steven A. Locke, First Vice President,
International Association of Fire Chiefs, September 9, 2025.... 129
Letter of March 17, 2025, from International Association of Fire
Chiefs, et al., to House Speaker Mike Johnson, et al........... 137
Letter of March 21, 2025, from Tom Cochran, Chief Executive
Officer and Executive Director, United States Conference of
Mayors, et al., to Senator Ted Cruz, et al..................... 140
Letter from Margaret Byrnes, Executive Director, NH Municipal
Association, et al., to Senator Ted Cruz, et al................ 142
Letter of September 9, 2025, from Association of Public-Safety
Communications Officials-International, et al., to Mr. Guthrie,
et al.......................................................... 144
Letter of July 28, 2025, from Randy R. Rossi, Executive Director,
Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, to Senator Ted Cruz,
et al.......................................................... 146
Statement of Patrick Yoes, National President, Fraternal Order of
Police, September 9, 2025...................................... 148
Statement of Intrado, September 9, 2025.......................... 153
Letter of September 9, 2025, from Norma J. Torres, a
Representative in Congress from the State of California, to Mr.
Guthrie and Mr. Pallone........................................ 156
Article of September 8, 2025, ``9/11's failures led to a first-
responder network-which will vanish if Congress doesn't act,''
by Ray Kelly, New York Post.................................... 159
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
----------
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2025
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Communications and Technology,
Committee on Energy and Commerce,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:17 a.m., in
the John D. Dingell Room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building,
Hon. Richard Hudson (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Members present: Representatives Hudson, Allen, Latta,
Bilirakis, Carter of Georgia, Dunn, Pfluger, Cammack,
Obernolte, Houchin, Fry, Kean, Goldman, Fedorchak, Guthrie (ex
officio), Matsui (subcommittee ranking member), Soto, Clarke,
Ruiz, Peters, Dingell, Kelly, Barragan, Carter of Louisiana,
Menendez, Landsman, McClellan, Castor, and Pallone (ex
officio).
Also present: Representatives Joyce and Mullin.
Staff present: Ansley Boylan, Director of Operations;
Christian Calvert, Press Assistant; Jessica Donlon, General
Counsel; Sydney Greene, Director, Finance and Logistics; Kate
Harper, Chief Counsel, Communications and Technology; Megan
Jackson, Staff Director; Noah Jackson, Clerk, Communications
and Technology; Sophie Khanahmadi, Deputy Staff Director; John
Lin, Senior Counsel, Communications and Technology; Joel
Miller, Chief Counsel; Elaina Murphy, Professional Staff
Member, Communications and Technology; Dylan Rogers,
Professional Staff Member; Jackson Rudden, Staff Assistant;
Chris Sarley, Member Services/Stakeholder Director; Matt
VanHyfte, Communications Director; Jane Vickers, Press
Assistant; Hannah Anton, Minority Policy Analyst; Parul Desai,
Minority Chief Counsel, Communications and Technology; Waverly
Gordon, Minority Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel;
Tiffany Guarascio, Minority Staff Director; Dan Miller,
Minority Professional Staff Member; Emma Roehrig, Minority
Staff Assistant; Michael Scurato, Minority FCC Detailee;
Johanna Thomas, Minority Counsel; Jackson Hall, Intern; and
Shae Reinberg, Intern.
Mr. Hudson. The subcommittee will come to order. The Chair
will recognize himself for an opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD HUDSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
Good morning. Welcome to today's hearing, ``Public Safety
Communications in the United States.'' Looking forward to
hearing from our witnesses about the need for our first
responders and how to improve communication--oh, there it goes.
I pushed the wrong button. I think I pushed your button. I
don't know what I pushed. Oh, OK. Someone got struck with
lightning backstage.
But I am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses
about the needs of our first responders and how to improve
communications for our public safety.
I want to start by taking a moment of personal privilege
and recognizing our chief counsel, Kate Harper. Today is her
last day working for the committee. We are bittersweet but
excited for her. She starts a new job after an incredible
career on the Hill, 6 of those years with our great Committee
on Energy and Commerce.
Kate has a lot to be proud of in her time here: finding a
nearly impossible deal for our spectrum auction in this year's
reconciliation bill, working on keeping our kids safe from
TikTok's Chinese ownership, and finding ways to expand
broadband for all Americans. She has been invaluable to the
progress and growth of our subcommittee and subcommittee
members, myself especially. And I know that I can attribute a
lot of my success, probably all of my success as chairman, to
her and her hard work.
So I am looking forward to seeing her grow in her career
and, more importantly, as her family grows. So thank you, Kate,
for your wonderful service to this committee. We wish you all
the best.
Now I will recognize our ranking member, Ms. Matsui, for as
much time as she may consume.
Ms. Matsui. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I also from this side of the aisle very much applaud Kate's
efforts and everything else that we have been doing on this
committee and, quite frankly, the importance of us all working
together on this too.
And I applaud the fact that we have been making progress on
certain areas, and I know that we have you to thank for that.
And so service is so important, I believe, for all of us on
this committee, and I really believe what we do in this
committee really does resound beyond this committee. And we
thank all the people who work on this committee in order to do
this.
So thank you very much, Kate. Really, really, really
appreciate it. Thank you.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you for that.
Listen, communication systems are crucial for our public
safety organizations. Our first responders need reliable
communications to be able to answer calls for help. We have
unfortunately experienced many instances where our public
safety communications didn't work, and the consequences were
devastating.
During the horrific terrorist attacks in the United States
on September 11th, 2001, the anniversary of which is this week,
our communications networks were overloaded, resulting in calls
being dropped or not going through.
More recently, although significantly improved from 2001,
in my home State of North Carolina, we felt the severe impacts
from Hurricane Helene's devastation, ultimately preventing
people from being able to call 9-1-1 and receiving lifesaving
care.
These are just two examples of major events where a lack of
public safety communication cost hundreds and thousands of
lives.
Today's first responder communication landscape looks
vastly different than that of 2001. After 9/11, Congress stood
up the 9/11 Commission, which released recommendations to
prepare for and guard against future attacks. One of those
recommendations led to Congress establishing the First
Responder Network Authority, or FirstNet, a nationwide
broadband network specifically built for public safety.
FirstNet was allocated 20 megahertz of spectrum and $7
billion to build out the networks in all 50 States and
territories. In 2017, AT&T was selected to deploy this network,
and since then, other providers offer competitive services to
serve public safety.
With FirstNet's statutory authority set to expire in 2027,
it is time for Congress to assess the progress made by FirstNet
to ensure that all requirements are being met and it is
adequately serving the needs of our public safety community.
Additionally, our 9-1-1 call centers are working to deploy
advanced technology known as Next Generation 9-1-1. Next
Generation 9-1-1 is a critical technology upgrade for our first
responders, and I have been a longtime supporter of this
deployment nationwide.
This internet protocol-based system at our 9-1-1 call
centers will open the door for advanced tools for both the
public and our first responders to use.
NG 9-1-1-equipped centers are able to receive text
messages, photos, and videos to help aid response efforts. This
technology also allows for seamless integration of artificial
intelligence for cybersecurity purposes and to aid call takers
in times of large call volume or provide real-time language
transcription or even translation.
Once fully deployed, NG 9-1-1 will be able to provide
specific geolocation data for wireless callers known as
dispatchable location. This accurate location will let first
responders know the exact location of a caller automatically
instead of just the nearest cell tower.
Similar technologies are also being implemented to transmit
vertical location data, which can help first responders locate
the exact floor of someone in a high-rise building. Equipping
our first responders with this information can improve response
times and help saves lives.
Importantly, this technology allows calls to be transferred
or rerouted to other call centers in the event a call center is
taken offline due to an outage or a natural disaster.
Our public safety and law enforcement officers put their
lives on the line every day to help us in our times of need,
and we must make sure they have the best tools available to do
their jobs. Today, we will hear from our witnesses about the
state of public safety communications and whether public safety
needs are being met. We will hear about the tools and
technologies that are most effective for them to do their job
and where improvements can be made.
I look forward to hearing from the witnesses today about
these issues and how Congress can stand ready as a partner.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hudson follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Hudson. I now recognize the ranking member, the
gentlelady from California, for her opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DORIS O. MATSUI, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Ms. Matsui. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Today's hearing is about one of the most critical
resources: keeping America safe. Public safety communications
are vital to ensure we have round-the-clock warnings to avoid
tragedies, such as lives lost and the tens of thousands
displaced during this year's California wildfire season or this
summer's flash floods in central Texas, the deadliest in almost
49 years. These are not just one-off events. As climate change
worsens, extreme weather events are becoming more common and
deadly.
Yet, instead of investing in the public communication
systems that literally save lives, Republicans are bending the
knee as President Trump takes a wrecking ball to our public
safety infrastructure. In July, congressional Republicans gave
into President Trump's demands to cancel over a billion dollars
in funding to local public television and radio stations,
public media stations, which reach nearly 99 percent of
Americans and can send out emergency alerts even when cellular
and internet service are down.
In 2018, Sacramento's KVIE public TV delivered their first-
ever earthquake early warning in under 3 seconds. This warning
system by California public TV stations gives the public
critical seconds of notice before shaking begins, allowing
people to move to safety, hospitals to protect patients, and
operators to secure critical infrastructure.
Yet Republicans chose to defund public media, kneecapping
local and especially rural and remote communities' ability to
receive lifesaving information.
This isn't just speculation. We are already seeing the
consequences play out in real time.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting can no longer
administer grants for the next-generation warning system,
leaving in limbo millions of dollars in funding to upgrade
local stations' emergency alert equipment. And thanks to their
One Big Ugly Bill, Republicans have highjacked billions of
spectrum auction dollars to fund tax breaks for the wealthy,
abandoning past bipartisan plans to use those funds for Next
Generation 9-1-1 nationwide to update decade-old systems and
provide faster, more accurate emergency responses.
At the same time, the Trump administration is gutting
public safety agencies like the National Weather Service. DOGE
fired close to 600 National Weather Service staff who were
critical to delivering effective forecasting and disaster
coordination. In May, the National Weather Service offices in
Sacramento and Hanford had to close 24/7 operations because the
Trump administration decimated over half their workers.
National Weather Service is not waste or fraud. It is an
essential service to ensure Americans to be prepared for and
survive natural disasters. Yet the Trump administration
continues to dismantle what makes Americans safe.
Take FEMA, the lead agency for coordinating Federal
disaster response. Before hurricane season, President Trump
slashed FEMA's workforce and canceled billions in disaster
preparedness funding. Across the board, where the Government is
providing service that makes people safer, President Trump has
decided it is not worth the cost.
Is that really the legacy my Republican colleagues want to
leave behind? The best they have to offer their constituents?
We should be investing more resources in our public safety
infrastructure, not taking a chainsaw to them. We must restore
public media funding, invest in Next Generation 9-1-1
nationwide, and fight back against President Trump's public
safety cuts.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about how we
can strengthen public safety communications. And I do hope we
can get back to working on this issue in a common, bipartisan
way instead of standing by as this administration cripples our
public safety and disaster preparedness.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Matsui follows:]
GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Ms. Matsui. And with that, I yield the balance of my time.
Mr. Hudson. I thank the gentlelady.
I now recognize the chairman of the full committee, the
gentleman from Kentucky, for 5 minutes for his opening
statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BRETT GUTHRIE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you
for bringing us together for this important hearing. Thanks to
all of our witnesses for being here.
As you know, we are here in the wake of the tragic floods
of Texas. And our hearts have been heavy for Representative
Pfluger, who sits next to me, and Representative Carter, who
had children and grandchildren at the camp who are,
fortunately, OK. But they lost friends. And Representative
Carter's grandchildren lost their cousin on the other side of
his family. And it is just a heart-wrenching time, and our
prayers are still out for these families. And it is just--but
this tragedy highlights the importance of the hearing we have
today and the communication infrastructure that we need in
desperate moments like these.
We may take 9-1-1 for granted. As a matter of fact, if
anybody has ever heard Robert Aderholt say this, in 1968 the
first 9-1-1 call was placed in Haleyville, Alabama. I am not
sure why Haleyville, Alabama, chose to be the first place to do
it, but they did. And before that, you had to look up the
police--the sheriff or the police officer or the hospital
number in a phone book, those of us old enough to remember
phone books. And now the single three-digit number improves the
response times and saves lives.
So I think Robert was 2 or 3 years old. So think of how far
the world has come in Robert Aderholt's lifetime. And it just--
not that long ago. I mean, I know he is a little older than he
wants to be, but it is not that long ago that we really had--
that this was implemented.
So, since that first call, the technology has really
changed, but it is changing exponentially now. Next Generation
9-1-1 is becoming more common at call centers around the
country, which means faster and more prepared emergency
responses, including enhanced location accuracy. I remember,
when I first got here, we were talking about--this is the first
time that somebody in a hotel room's mom--domestic abuse--and a
child called--knew to call 9-1-1. And they were little but
couldn't tell them which room they were in. So the police
showed up to a hotel, but they didn't have any idea which room
to go to. So I know that it gets even better with this type
of--where we are with Next Generation.
So, regardless of what type of technology would service--
providers, first responders use, it is critical that their
communication tools work reliably in the moment of need. My
home State of Kentucky has dealt with flooding and tornadoes in
recent months, and my district dealt with the same just a few
years ago, including my neighbors behind me. The tornado missed
my house by about 100 yards. And so I have seen firsthand how
access to reliable communications and having first responders
that show up when you need it is extremely, extremely
important, and it helps those in need.
But, before I wrap up, I had to take a second to thank Kate
Harper--Kate O'Connor Harper--Harper as well. She has been an
invaluable member of the team, always pleasant, always--and one
of the smartest people you will deal with in this--maybe in all
the spaces but certainly in telecommunications and has just
been a pleasure to work with.
My daughter has moved to Chicago. So I always enjoy her
Chicago accent. And the fact that she is going to work for a
company--I don't know if we can say or not--but the company
that has a hard O and a hard A in the title, it is fun to hear
her say where she is going to work.
So anyway, thanks a lot. Godspeed. And you mean a lot to
this committee, and I look forward to working with you in your
new endeavor.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Guthrie follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Guthrie. And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. I thank the gentleman.
I now recognize the gentleman from New Jersey, the ranking
member, for 5 minutes for his opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, Jr., A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
At a time when our Nation is facing more and more
devastating extreme weather events, from wildfires to
hurricanes to flooding, it is critical that Congress do more to
keep first responders connected and our communities informed.
The Energy and Commerce Committee has a long history of
supporting emergency communications systems and the first
responders who rely on them day in and day out to keep our
communications safe.
Unfortunately, the Republican majority has jammed through
bills that abandon first responders and the safety of our
communities. The Republicans' Big Ugly Bill reinstated the
Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction authority
without any plan to ensure that auction proceeds will fund
priorities that serve the public interest. In fact, my
Republican colleagues abandoned a bipartisan agreement that was
unanimously passed out of the full committee last Congress to
fully fund the deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1 across the
country using those revenues raised from spectrum auctions.
Many of America's emergency communications centers rely on
outdated infrastructure and technologies from half a century
ago. This makes them less effective in dispatching timely
emergency response and leaves them dangerously vulnerable to
cyber attacks. It is long past time to address this problem.
The Senate devoting just a fraction of the Big Ugly Bill's
nearly 90 billion in spectrum auction revenues to modernize our
public safety communication systems, Republicans made a
conscious choice that tax breaks for billionaires and big
corporations are a more deserving cause, and I completely
disagree.
Next Generation 9-1-1 is a critical public safety
initiative that will save countless lives. NG 9-1-1 will allow
Americans to call and send texts, images, or videos to 9-1-1 to
help first responders and emergency personnel better assess
emergencies and assist people in need. It will reduce response
times and equip first responders with lifesaving information
before they arrive at the scene. And these funds would save
lives, but Republicans walked away from the agreement to invest
in this program with their Big Ugly Bill. And I think it is a
betrayal of our Nation's first responders and 9-1-1
dispatchers.
In another blow to public safety, congressional Republicans
and President Trump stripped away billions of dollars in
promised funding to public broadcasters who play a vital role
keeping communities informed during times of emergency. The
Corporation for Public Broadcasting will now close its doors by
the end of this month, and the public stations it served are
already staring down the negative consequences of Republicans'
actions.Look no further than the Federal Emergency Management
Agency's Next Generation Warning System Grant Program, which
was administered by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It
provided funding to public media to keep communities informed
during disasters, like during the recent floods in Texas and
during hurricanes last year in Florida and western North
Carolina. Since the funding rescission, the program's future is
in serious jeopardy, threatening public stations' access to
funding to upgrade and maintain emergency alert systems.
And this committee's work to improve public safety
communications' capabilities has traditionally been a
bipartisan endeavor, and it should be. But it is impossible to
ignore the near constant damage our Republican colleagues
inflict on institutions that serve the public interest. It is
our job to ensure first responders have the tools they need to
communicate and that broadcasters are equipped to keep the
public informed. And these senseless cuts make their jobs
harder, not easier.
So I hope we can reverse course and get back to work in a
bipartisan way to pass real solutions to make our public safety
communications systems faster, more reliable, and more secure
for the benefit of all Americans.
We should be working together to pass and fully fund the
Next Generation 9-1-1 program. But we also have to come
together to address the looming sunset of the First Responder
Network Authority, or FirstNet, to ensure that first responders
do not lose access to this vital communications network and the
capabilities that it provides. Public safety organizations
representing law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services,
and local authorities have called on Congress to pass
legislation to preserve FirstNet's authority to operate beyond
the sunset date. And it is critical that we act on that as
well.
So, again, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the discussion.
I yield back the balance of my time. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Pallone follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Hudson. I thank the gentleman.
We have now concluded with Member opening statements. The
Chair reminds Members that, pursuant to the committee rules,
all Members' opening statements will be made part of the
record.
I would like to again thank our witnesses for being here
today to testify before this subcommittee. Our witnesses will
have 5 minutes each to provide an opening statement, which will
be followed by a round of questions from Members.
The witnesses here before us today are Mr. Steve Newton,
Emergency Management Director from Chatham County, North
Carolina Emergency Management; Sheriff Shannon Dicus from San
Bernardino County--tells me that is the largest county in
America--thank you, Sheriff; Dr. Brian Fontes, former chief
executive officer from the National Emergency Number
Association; and Mr. Randall C. Wright, executive director of
Florida Public Radio Emergency Network and Project BEACON.
Thank you all again.
Mr. Newton, you are recognized for 5 minutes for your
opening statement.
STATEMENTS OF STEVEN K. NEWTON, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR,
CHATHAM COUNTY, NC; SHANNON DICUS, SHERIFF, SAN BERNARDINO
COUNTY; BRIAN FONTES, Ph.D., FORMER CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
NATIONAL EMERGENCY NUMBER ASSOCIATION; AND RANDALL C. WRIGHT,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF MEDIA PROPERTIES, COLLEGE OF
JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
STATEMENT OF STEVEN K. NEWTON
Mr. Newton. Thank you, Chairman Hudson, Ranking Member
Matsui, and distinguished members of the subcommittee.
My name is Steve Newton. I am the Emergency Management
Director of Chatham County, North Carolina. I also serve as the
vice chair of the Statewide Interoperability Executive
Committee. I welcome the opportunity to discuss public safety
communications as they exist today in the United States.
The ability for public safety leaders and responders to
communicate is never more essential than the days immediately
before and immediately following a disaster. We depend on
communications pathways from government to government,
government to the public, and public to the public. When any of
these pathways fails, there are dire consequences.
In many cases, the ability to communicate may help us
prevent a disaster from becoming a catastrophe. Widespread and
sustained inoperable cellular networks, land mobile radio
systems, and 9-1-1 call routing create an exceptionally
difficult operating environment in which incident commanders
and responders aren't aware of changing conditions, can't
adequately plan and request resources, can't effectively direct
response activities, alert the public, or protect frontline
personnel.
Over the last 32 years, I have participated in the response
to 21 federally declared disasters across North Carolina,
Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and South Carolina. Most
recently, I responded to Hurricane Helene in western North
Carolina and directed the response to Tropical Storm Chantal in
my own jurisdiction. Of those disasters, three stand out for
their impact to public safety communications.
First was in 2005 at St. Tammany Parrish in Louisiana after
Hurricane Katrina. And the common theme that you will hear:
wind, torrential rain, and flooding. In this case, storm surge
resulted in loss of life, damage to homes, damage to 9-1-1
centers. And I will fluctuate between calling it a 9-1-1
center, a comm center, a PSAP, or a public safety answering
point. Please forgive me. Our emergency response facilities
were affected, public works yards, communications tower, wired
and wireless internet, and telephony.
In Louisiana, two 9-1-1 centers were offline for more than
30 days. For the first week after impact, we had no call
routing. So 9-1-1 calls were either abandoned or were not
consistently routed. Some were answered. Some just did not go
through.
Even after 10 days, some manual call routing could occur,
and they went to 10-digit lines. And what you get with a 10-
digit standard telephone line is you get a voice but you don't
get any of the additional data, locations, anything like that.
In 2017, I responded to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
after Hurricane Maria. The day after landfall, on September
20th, 95 percent of their cell phones were out of service. And
that is a combination--and again, you will hear common themes
today. It was a combination of damage to fiber optic backhaul
and transport lines, and then certainly into the days and weeks
and months that followed, it was interruption of the power
supply.
Due to limited communications, our team--we broke up into
several teams. I was given the area around San Juan and six
municipalities, or counties, in Puerto Rico. We spent 3 days
going from municipality to municipality to try to locate local
leaders to just understand what they were facing, understand
what the dire needs were that we could work on today.
And these needs--and I--3 weeks out, these needs included
oxygen, water, food. And, again, we had to drive around with a
piece of paper and try to find these folks.
Ultimately, it would take 11 months to restore 100 percent
of the power on the island, the longest power outage in U.S.
history that I am aware of.
In 2024, I responded to western North Carolina after
Hurricane Helene. Again, wind, torrential rain, flooding. In
this case, landslides did the same damage--damaged
infrastructure, damaged homes, loss of life. Over 1,700 miles
of fiber optic cable were destroyed. Nineteen PSAPs were taken
offline where they could not receive a 9-1-1 call directly.
In our case, 74 percent of cell sites were out of service
across the region--again, the result--a result of fiberoptic
transport lines being cut, the result of power outages and
inaccessibility.
Hurricane Helene represented some of the most complex
communications challenges I have ever faced as a professional.
I will leave you with the successes for us. The North
Carolina 9-1-1's Board's statewide Emergency Services IP
Network, the ESInet, meant that of those 19 PSAPs, their calls
were routed to a backup PSAP. So, if a call made it to the
system, it was answered.
Our State Highway Patrol's VIPER land mobile radio system
processed 3 million calls.
And then, finally, our partnership that coordinated
repairs, deployables, and broadband internet to bring us back
online.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Newton follows:]
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Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
Sheriff, you have 5 minutes for your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF SHERIFF SHANNON DICUS
Sheriff Dicus. Chairman Hudson and Ranking Member Matsui
and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity
to appear before you today, and thank you for all of your
continued leadership on advancing Next Gen 9-1-1.
My name is Shannon Dicus, and I serve as the sheriff of San
Bernardino County, California. I am testifying on behalf of
Major County Sheriffs of America, an association representing
sheriffs' offices that collectively serve more than 110 million
people in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Sheriffs'
offices cover entire counties, which means we oversee both city
and unincorporated areas, critical infrastructure, and remote
rural regions. We respond to a wide range of emergencies to
coordinate daily with Federal agencies, State, and local
partners, fire service, and emergency medical service.
We also operate some of the Nation's largest 9-1-1 centers.
Many smaller agencies in our regions rely on us for
communication support, so when systems are disrupted, the
impact is broad. For this region--for this reason, emergency
communications remain one of our highest priorities.
We have seen why this work matters. When central Texas was
hit with severe flooding this summer, many residents reported
late or missing warnings. Those delays cost precious time. That
is why modern, interoperable systems like Next Generation 9-1-1
are essential. They ensure alerts reach people quickly across
multiple technical platforms and give responders better
situational awareness.
We also know firsthand how cyber incidents can disrupt
emergency response. In 2023, San Bernardino County Sheriff's
Department experienced a ransomware attack that took our
computer-aided dispatch offline and forced deputies to rely on
handheld radios and manual processes. While we restored
operations, the event underscored how vulnerable local systems
can be and why consistent Federal cybersecurity standards and
resources are so important.
So today I respectfully ask that Congress take four key
steps.
The first: Pass legislation to upgrade America to true Next
Gen 9-1-1 capabilities with an emphasis on cybersecurity,
resiliency, and real-time data.
Number two: Fund these essential upgrades to ensure
consistent service in both urban and rural areas.
Number three: Remove the sunset provision on the FirstNet
authority, allowing continued reinvestment of program revenues
into network improvements without taxpayer dollars.
And number four: Establish Federal cybersecurity standards
to help public safety agencies protect against growing digital
threats.
In San Bernardino County, which spans 20,000 square miles
and serves more than 2 million residents, we have worked to
modernize our systems. We are among the first in California to
deploy texts to 9-1-1 and have since expanded to full Next
Generation 9-1-1 with geodiverse call routing and improved
interoperability. These improvements have strengthened our
response through connectivity gaps. However, vulnerabilities
still remain.
FirstNet has also been a valuable addition. California's
decision to opt in brought five new FirstNet towers to our
county. The FirstNet authority has committed 2 billion
nationwide to reinvest and fund in the program itself rather
than funding by taxpayers. To maintain that progress, Congress
must extend FirstNet's authorization beyond 2027.
Finally, I want to highlight the importance of our public
safety communicators, the professionals who answer our 9-1-1
calls. Reclassifying them under the 9-1-1 SAVES Act will ensure
they receive the training and support and resources that they
need.
Mr. Chairman and Members, our request is straightforward:
Continue building on systems that are working, strengthen
cybersecurity protections, and provide the resources necessary
to ensure that every community has access to modern, reliable
emergency communications.
Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to all of
your questions.
[The prepared statement of Sheriff Dicus follows:]
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Mr. Hudson. Thank you, Sheriff.
Dr. Fontes, you are recognized for 5 minutes for your
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF BRIAN FONTES, Ph.D.
Dr. Fontes. Thank you very much, Chairman Hudson, Ranking
Member Matsui, and members of the subcommittee. I am honored to
be here today.
My goal is really rather simple. I have two of them. The
first is to ask Congress to enact legislation to reclassify the
dedicated 9-1-1 professionals as true public safety
professionals and to fully fund the deployment of Next
Generation 9-1-1. I echo the comments of my colleagues.
Currently, 9-1-1 professionals are classified as
administrative or secretarial, similar to receptionists and
secretaries, rather than protective service. And it is with
this protective service that includes police and fire. It
should also include 9-1-1 professionals. This misclassification
is a relic of legacy 9-1-1 last century, Haleyville, Alabama,
when I was a senior in high school, when the first public 9-1-1
call was made.
Today, 9-1-1 professionals do so much more. They handle
medical triage, provide crucial situational awareness for our
emergency response teams, and they undergo rigorous training in
the various medical protocols, technologies, and procedures
that must be followed.
Representative Torres, a former 9-1-1 professional, and
Representative Fitzpatrick, along with Senators Blackburn and
Klobuchar, have long championed the 9-1-1 SAVES Act. This zero-
cost bill would reclassify 9-1-1 telecommunicators--or
professionals, as I call them--for what they are: true public
safety professionals. They are key components to the emergency
response team. As such, they deserve to be recognized alongside
their public safety colleagues.
The next issue: Funding is urgently needed for Next
Generation 9-1-1. 9-1-1 is often the first point of contact
between citizens and emergency first responders or field
responders. Yet many of our Nation's 9-1-1 systems are rooted
in last-century voice-centric technology. Nearly 90 percent of
the 9-1-1 calls today originate from smartphone devices,
broadband-capable devices. But legacy 9-1-1 systems are not
designed to receive data or to process data, videos, texts, or
other important information relevant to that specific
emergency.
The answer is simple. Next Generation 9-1-1 is a suite of
standards-based technologies that will fully modernize the 9-1-
1 systems with information-rich data, enhanced cybersecurity,
redundancy, and resiliency. We have heard this already. And
this will inevitably protect the public in a more efficient
manner. It allows 9-1-1 centers to push and pull data between
and among senders themselves.
But NG 9-1-1 only works if 9-1-1 centers across the Nation
can acquire necessary technologies. Transition costs--moving
from legacy 9-1-1 systems to Next Generation 9-1-1 systems adds
financial strain to local communities, Tribal lands, and
States. The sooner NG 9-1-1 can be deployed, the sooner these
expensive-to-maintain, last-century legacy systems can be
phased out.
We saw the potential of NG 9-1-1 in North Carolina with
Hurricane Helene. Centers using emergency service IP networks,
or ESI nets or SE nets, a key component in the building blocks
for Next Generation 9-1-1, enable a variety of things to occur
such as geofencing affected areas and routing calls to other
centers that were not affected by the hurricane. But ESI nets
alone are not enough. Until the entire country is fully
deployed in Next Generation 9-1-1, no State, regardless of its
investment, will fully realize the maximum benefits of Next
Generation 9-1-1.
In 2012, Congress authorized a study to determine the cost
to fully transition to Next Generation 9-1-1. That study was
completed in 2018. And, adjusted for today's dollars, the value
of that estimated--and there was a range between roughly 9 and
13 billion dollars--but that, if you were adjusting it for
today's dollars, you would be closer to $15 billion.
Waiting for another cost study or analysis to be completed
is not necessarily the answer. And, in fact, it could turn out
to be a delay, such as the 6-year study before. The answer is
to fund Next Generation 9-1-1.
I want to thank Chairman Hudson, Vice Chairman Allen,
Ranking Members Pallone and Matsui for their bipartisan support
of Next Generation 9-1-1 funding during the markup of the
reconciliation bill and previous statements.
I urge Congress to establish consistent funding stream that
can be accessed easily and efficiently by State and local
governments for the deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1.
In January of 2024, nine former FCC Chairs, both
Republicans and Democratic administrations, sent a letter to
Congress underscoring the need to fully fund Next Generation 9-
1-1. I believe that was the first time in the history of the
FCC that nine former Chairmen agreed to the common issue of
funding--in this case, Next Generation 9-1-1.
Unfortunately, everybody in this room will likely end up
calling 9-1-1 at some point in their life. I would hope that we
would provide them, your constituents, all of us, the best 9-1-
1 service in America.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Fontes follows:]
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Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
Mr. Wright, you are recognized for 5 minutes for your
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF RANDALL C. WRIGHT
Mr. Wright. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Hudson,
Ranking Member Matsui, and distinguished members of the
subcommittee. I am Randy Wright, executive director of the
media properties at the University of Florida and general
manager of WUFT, which are noncommercial public radio and
television stations. Our mission at WUFT and the University of
Florida extends across the State of Florida but also the State
of South Carolina through transformative public safety
initiatives, Florida public radio emergency network, and a new
initiative called BEACON, which is an----
Mr. Goldman. Mr. Wright, your microphone is not on.
Mr. Wright. You know, you would think--you would think,
starting in radio at the age of 14--right?
Mr. Goldman. We can hear your voice fine, but that was----
Mr. Wright. But let's do it with the mic on. Should I start
over or continue?
Mr. Hudson. Continue.
Mr. Wright. Just continue. OK. I apologize for that.
We have recently launched the new AI-driven initiative in
Florida called BEACON, and we have done this in partnership
with the Florida Division of Emergency Management and executive
director Kevin Guthrie.
WUFT and my colleagues in Florida and South Carolina are
among 1,300 public radio and 360 public television stations
that form America's public safety communications
infrastructure. These stations reach our entire Nation with
reliable emergency alerting services in a noncommercial
environment that is free of sensationalism. This public media
technical infrastructure forms the backbone of our Nation's
alerting capabilities.
The public radio satellite system connects all of these
stations, enabling immediate national emergency alerts to be
shared on the most resilient medium, which is over-the-air
radio.
Many people aren't aware that the PBS WARN system serves as
one of only two conduits to the Nation for our wireless
emergency alerts. This critical broadcast infrastructure serves
as the last mile for public safety and emergency alerts to
reach Americans, and that must be protected.
WUFT's FPREN, or Florida Public Radio Emergency Network,
launched in 2013, really exemplifies public media's power in
crisis, and it relies heavily on the power and reach of
broadcast transmission. FPREN, which serves every public radio
and television station in Florida and in South Carolina,
doesn't merely respond to disasters. Our team, working in
collaboration with our public media partners, anticipates these
disasters. Before Hurricane Milton arrived last year, FPREN was
already mobilizing, delivering active updates in English and
Spanish across both States of Florida and South Carolina. When
the power failed, cellular and internet service were lost,
FPREN came through loud and clear, through public radio
transmitters providing critically important updates during and
following that crisis.
The University of Florida, as one of the Nation's leading
public land grant institutions, has pioneered technologies that
truly transform public broadcasting infrastructure into
community lifelines.
WUFT provides the only consistent local news source for
much of north Florida, including rural areas with no other news
outlets. This journalistic depth powers our position as a
lifeline for fact-based public safety and emergency information
that saves lives and property in partnership with emergency
management agencies statewide.
UF is truly a hotbed for a variety of public safety
initiatives, including a current effort with AT&T FirstNet to
develop safer places, which allows our University of Florida
research teams and law enforcement to advance solutions to
better protect against situations like active assailants.
There is absolutely no greater calling than the safety of
our Nation, and UF and WUFT continue to lead in partnership
with and alongside local, State, and Federal agencies.
Now, WUFT, as I mentioned, just developed BEACON within the
last 2 years. This is a revolutionary 24-hour, always-on
alerting channel that utilizes artificial intelligence to
continuously and immediately broadcast only official public
safety alerts. BEACON broadcasts on dedicated public radio
frequencies, it streams online, and it reaches mobile devices
through the BEACON app. Serving communities in multiple
languages, BEACON provides a commercial and news-free sanctuary
where nothing but those official alerts get out without
distraction.
Developed in coordination and partnership with the Florida
Division of Emergency Management, WUFT and the University of
Florida have already established numerous BEACON stations
across Florida, representing America's and, quite frankly, the
world's first comprehensive alerting channel, with more BEACON
sites to launch in the weeks to come.
Local emergency management leaders at the county level--
like Jen Grice in Alachua County, Florida, John Schultz in Lee
County, Florida--have fully embraced BEACON, along with other
county-level leaders already incorporating the solution into
their community engagement strategies.
This marriage of FPREN and BEACON creates a comprehensive
solution delivering trusted coverage alongside official alerts
directly from emergency management agencies.
What this means is that these are solutions that serve all
Americans--urban or rural, rich or poor--with comprehensive,
immediate, and ongoing alerting. With the recent rescission of
Federal funding support for public broadcasting, which directly
impacts this infrastructure that is so critical to the alerting
last mile, we urge Congress to find new pathways of support for
these critical services and for innovative solutions like FPREN
and BEACON.
Public media's infrastructure represents an irreplaceable
national asset for emergency communications, particularly
serving rural and underserved communities where alternatives
are prohibitively expensive.
In the public broadcasting sphere, we are very proud and
consider ourselves to be a utility for the American people--a
must-have, not a nice-to-have. Public broadcasting and our
infrastructure truly consist--become America's alerting first
responders.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wright follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Hudson. Thank you, Mr. Wright.
We will now begin a period of questions from Members. I
will recognize myself for 5 minutes.
Mr. Newton, thank you for being here today. You talked
about 2024, Hurricane Helene tore through western North
Carolina, causing widespread damage and more than 100
fatalities. Understand a significant portion of the
communications infrastructure was destroyed, per your
testimony, and several of the call centers--the 19 call centers
were out of commission.
Can you talk about how North Carolina's statewide Next
Generation 9-1-1 system helped public safety officials respond
to this disaster?
Mr. Newton. Thank you for the question.
The 19 PSAPs that were taken offline--because of fiber line
cuts, primarily--were able to be rerouted. And so because the
calls are managed from a digital level on this ESInet that we
have statewide with all 124 PSAPs, that if their normal call
rerouting plan isn't appropriate because of call volume and
things like that, the Network Management Center, operation
center, the NMC, is able to then reprovision and turn those
calls to another 9-1-1 center that is not impacted.
In fact, one of the communities that was impacted, Mitchell
County--I believe it is Mitchell--we received calls for them
for 30 days after the event, which means that--I call 9-1-1
from western North Carolina, I get help from a trained,
equipped professional. And then that call itself--and I need
fire, I need EMS, I need police--is able to be routed back to
somebody who actually dispatches it.
Mr. Hudson. That is amazing.
You know, Next Generation 9-1-1, as has been said by
several witnesses, is the next critical step in improving our
Nation's public safety communication system. It will allow for
more advanced types of communications, as you have mentioned,
increase interoperability, like the example you gave, and
increase cybersecurity. However, these systems are complex and
require careful planning and expertise for implementation.
Dr. Fontes, how can Congress be an effective partner in
ensuring the success--successful nationwide deployment of Next
Generation 9-1-1 technology?
Dr. Fontes. Thank you.
I think first and foremost is to provide the funding
necessary to transition to Next Generation 9-1-1. Communities
across the country, while maintaining legacy systems at their
cost, also are beginning or need to begin making the investment
to Next Generation 9-1-1. It is a costly endeavor. And the
longer the timeframe between the legacy 9-1-1 system sunsetting
and the deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1, the greater the
cost is going to be to the community.
So the easiest, the quickest--and I say ``quickest'' not to
give any false impression that it is going to be an overnight
activity--but, if the dollars were there, the planning and the
completion of those that already began their plans can take
place to ensure that our Nation has the best available Next
Generation 9-1-1 systems.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you for that.
Sheriff Dicus, San Bernardino County, as you said, is more
than 20,000 square miles and geographically very diverse,
including urban density, national forests, Mojave Desert. Does
just one communication service or technology reach every part
of your jurisdiction? And, if not, how does your department
handle that and ensure that you have got maximum communication
across the county?
Sheriff Dicus. Chairman, that is an excellent question.
So it is really a combination of multiple systems. So, for
instance, in our computer, in terms of answering calls for
deputy sheriffs, we run two communication cards. One is
FirstNet, and the other is a Verizon card. And the reason is,
is coverage for a county that vast--I mean, it takes 4 and a
half hours to drive across. And then, of course, our legacy 800
megahertz systems, which really is the backbone that we depend
on, having the ability for a deputy to get on a radio or get on
a cell phone and accomplish the tasks that they have been asked
to do.
Mr. Hudson. Appreciate that.
This question, I guess, would be for anybody here, but
what--it is sort of a--build on what I asked Dr. Fontes. I
understand funding is an issue, but are there other things
Congress can do to sort of help cut through and make this
nationwide deployment possible? Are there other issues out
there that we need to resolve or intervene on behalf of that
you can think of? I would open that to any of the witnesses.
Sheriff Dicus. I will take it, Chairman.
It has been my own experience--governance and policy
issues, when you are talking about critical infrastructure that
is replacing across the country, especially when you are going
through different jurisdictions that obviously have different
policies and different governance, creating a national standard
so that you can overcome those types of obstructions, making
sure we are able to build out that critical infrastructure so
that we can all communicate across the boards, is what I would
say is really important for this group to take a look at and
provide that consistency and that platform for the buildout for
all the States.
Mr. Hudson. All right.
Dr. Fontes. I would like to add to that. The obvious
importance, of course, is planning. And so I think it is
important that, if funding were made available, it is important
to recognize how that funding is made available. Is it
something that you do on an incremental basis? A first tranche
of funding for planning and early rollout? A second tranche of
funding for the deployment? And, of course, the final tranche
for completion.
So I am asking that Congress can be creative in how they
fund Next Generation 9-1-1. The governance aspect is vitally
important. You want to make sure that, however funds are
available, that those funds work within the processes, the
procedures, that State 9-1-1 administrators and local
governments actually have in place in order to utilize the
funding that would be available for the purpose of deploying
Next Generation 9-1-1.
Mr. Hudson. Great. I appreciate that.
At this time, I will recognize our ranking member, the
gentlelady from California, for 5 minutes for her questions.
Ms. Matsui. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
California public broadcasting stations like Sacramento's
KVIE play a critical role in public safety, from providing
wildfire outbreak alerts to delivering early earthquake
warnings within seconds. This summer, President Trump and
congressional Republicans gutted more than $1 billion in
funding to our local public television and radio stations,
funding that our local stations rely on to provide a failsafe
path for Americans to receive lifesaving emergency alerts,
warnings, and evacuation routes.
Mr. Wright, I think you agree what we need this public
funding. It is really critical for public safety. And--I say
this too, but can private, for-profit networks sufficiently
replace public media's role in public safety communications?
Mr. Wright. Thank you, Congresswoman. I appreciate your
question.
You know, I think that public broadcasting, to start with,
is very unique in our media ecosphere here in the country. The
rescission has had profound impacts already in terms of local
services that stations like yours in Sacramento have been able
to make but now may be having to cut.
I think the unique advantages that the public broadcasting
infrastructure brings to bear are what we need to focus on. And
some of those are we have a unified approach; we have a system
that reaches the entire country; we have a culture that is
built around public safety and public service. It is not a
profit motive that is incorporated into our DNA. Our DNA and
our culture is built around public safety and public service.
So do I think that we are uniquely qualified with the
investment that the American people have made through the
decades to really take advantage of this infrastructure? To
enhance public safety? To enhance service to the American
people? I think the future belongs to public broadcasting when
it comes to creating these public safety solutions.
Ms. Matsui. Right. I agree with you there.
This committee played a pivotal role in standing up the
nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network, or FirstNet. I have
long advocated for a strong effective governance over FirstNet,
as it holds significant responsibility over the use of highly
valuable spectrum and public funding.
Dr. Fontes, is FirstNet solving public safety
communications needs? If you had a power to fund additional
public safety priorities, what would you focus on, and how much
might it cost?
Dr. Fontes. Yes. Going back--thank you for that question,
actually. I am going back now several years.
Public----
Ms. Matsui. Not too far back now because we don't have much
time here.
Dr. Fontes. I know. Believe me.
The fact of the matter is public safety did not have access
to a nationwide public safety broadband network. Now, we call
this FirstNet, or the FirstNet authority that oversees this
public safety broadband network. I am not here to say that that
network should be sunsetted. What I am saying is that network
does provide a service. What I do believe, however, is that
when you are considering the reauthorization of FirstNet that
you take a look at all of the ways that have--or issues that
have been identified by inspector generals' reports regarding
the authorities' oversight of that.
I also believe that we are now in a world of competition in
public safety broadband networks. We didn't have that in 2012.
So----
Ms. Matsui. OK.
Dr. Fontes [continuing]. We have companies like Verizon or
T-Mobile or others coming online that provides opportunities
for public safety to utilize broadband networks.
I believe that public safety is best served when they are
in control and they are capable of making decisions as to what
network----
Ms. Matsui. OK. I want to ask Sheriff Dicus, as this
committee addresses FirstNet reauthorization, how can we best
strengthen our first responders' access to reliable, resilient,
and dedicated communication systems?
Sheriff Dicus. Ranking Member, it is certainly my opinion--
and I have experienced this firsthand in a county that is as
large as San Bernardino--the buildout of FirstNet is critical,
and the reason being is--I always explain it is what is in the
dirt that supports us. So we talked about fiber, and some of my
colleagues up here. There is a lot of these things that are not
in the ground, but yet we still respond to critical
infrastructure. And, in my county, we are talking about rare
earth minerals and things as you spread out to the unpopulated
areas of the county that could still potentially be attacked.
So the buildout of FirstNet to provide that priority broadband
system to be able to move that information is critically
important.
Also, there are layers of this, and the layers look
something like not just getting the call to the first responder
but managing it, getting him the best intelligence, being able
to transfer pictures, being able to transfer audio where a lot
of drone technology is coming into public safety right now,
being able to do real-time video. And it takes a broadband
network to be able to transfer modern types of communications.
Ms. Matsui. OK. Thank you very much. And I have run out of
time, so I yield.
Mr. Hudson. I thank the gentlelady.
I will recognize the chairman of the full committee, Mr.
Guthrie, for your questions for 5 minutes.
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you.
I want to start with the sheriff. In Kentucky, we have 120
counties, and in the--our founding fathers decided they wanted
a county seat within a horse--a day's horseback ride you can go
back and forth. So we have a lot of counties. So I remember
driving to--from Nevada to Las Vegas, and I looked at my wife
and said, about 3 hours into our drive, ``We have been in one
county the whole time.'' We were in San Bernardino County. So
it is good you are here because you have a perspective of an
urban area and broad spaces and wide-open spaces in the hottest
place--Needles, California, the hottest city in America, or
something like that, if I remember.
So here we are talking about FirstNet, and that is what is
important. And it was created in 2012, expires in 2027, so we
have to--so Sheriff Dicus, with your experience--and I know you
have talked about it in your opening statement, some questions,
but just as a user of FirstNet, what do you think we need to do
different in this reauthorization that makes your job easier or
better? We can serve your citizens better?
Sheriff Dicus. Well, certainly, fund it, and then continue
to expand it. There are still a lot of rural areas across this
country that are not covered, and having a priority-type
broadband system only for public safety with preemptive
technologies too--where if the traffic gets too much, say there
is a disaster somewhere else, they can move to make sure that
that specific agency or jurisdiction has priority within the
system.
And I think, with AI, there are still so many things to
come technically, having a robust broadband network to be able
to ingest whatever types of new communications we are going to
receive is critically important to moving public safety forward
and managing major critical----
Mr. Guthrie. So, due to the size of your county--I don't
know how many counties California has, but your county is
large, as we described. You use multiple service providers
across your county, right? I know that is probably necessary.
And does it affect your ability to do your job by having
different service providers in your own jurisdiction?
Sheriff Dicus. So, in the past, in my day on patrol,
absolutely it did. You actually had to be aware of where your
radios--how far they reached--phones and things of that nature.
So you had to manually change the radios. Now, with modern
technology, the computer actually switches between which
service provider has the most signal strength, and same thing
with our radio systems.
But even the manual radio systems have advanced in
technology to know whether or not a deputy sheriff or a law
enforcement officer may be lying on the ground versus standing
straight up. So the data you are getting in terms of
intelligence on the call is really second to none. And making
sure we posture ourselves for that in the remote places like
Needles is critically important.
Mr. Guthrie. The world's largest thermometer, right?
So the--so your ability to do your job, the technology has
compensated for the fact you have multiple providers in your
jurisdiction, so----
Sheriff Dicus. It certainly has helped, yes.
Mr. Guthrie. OK. Thanks.
And also, unfortunately, we have seen cyber attacks disrupt
9-1-1 systems and dispatch centers. So, Sheriff and Mr. Newton,
the question: From your perspective, what more can the Federal
Government do to help local law enforcement and public safety
agencies strengthen their cybersecurity?
Sheriff Dicus. As I mentioned in my opening, we have
experienced a cyber attack. And, as a sheriff, all of a sudden
you have these conflicting issues, and number one is talking
about maybe some governance or policies that relates to
cybersecurity insurance for counties like mine. And the reason
being is they bring in expertise to be able to manage those and
get you--your systems back up.
But talking about our computer automated dispatch system,
it took us down. Most sheriffs, for all of you, a lot of our
local agencies rely on our backbone. So we talk about security
switches--in our case, California Law Enforcement
Telecommunications System. Even though we still had voice
technology to communicate to the cops on the radio, think about
being able to get warrants processed. You could be out with a
dangerous felon and not get it.
So absolutely 100 percent critical to keep this moving
forward and look at things outside of not just the technology
but also support in how to get it quickly.
Mr. Guthrie. OK. Mr. Newton, how can Federal Government
help in cybersecurity situations?
Mr. Newton. I think expanding the work that we already do,
the collaborations with the FBI and CISA, the Cybersecurity
Infrastructure Security Agency, the common theme of reliable
funding. What we see, we had a very similar experience as the
sheriff in our community in which it is a continuity event for
us. Our ability to do mission-essential functions is interfered
with. And so our ability to, you know, bring in resources and
how do we keep--how do we stay in the business of providing
government services during these events.
And then I think continuation of vulnerability assessments,
of looking at--it is a big patchwork quilt across this country.
And especially in the world of cybersecurity, we have got to
invest the time and effort into, where do we stand? Where do we
need to be? How do we get better?
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. I thank the chairman.
The Chair now recognizes the ranking member of the full
committee, Mr. Pallone, for your 5 minutes of questions.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
For more than a decade, this committee has worked to pass
legislation to upgrade communication systems in 9-1-1 centers
around the country, and it is a bipartisan endeavor that will
improve emergency response and save lives. And that is why I
was so disappointed that my Republican colleagues passed the
Big Ugly Bill without any plan to use the proceeds from
spectrum auctions for programs that serve the public interest
like Next Generation 9-1-1.
So I have two questions, Mr. Fontes. Mr. Fontes, you have
been a strong advocate for using spectrum auction proceeds to
fund public safety priorities. Can you explain why authorizing
the FCC's auction authority for 10 years without funding Next
Generation 9-1-1 is a setback for public safety and first
responders, if you will?
Dr. Fontes. Thank you. I was around when the Commission
first received authorization from Congress to auction spectrum,
and that has and continues to be a success. It was unfortunate
that that authority lapsed.
Efforts continue to provide spectrum for our commercial and
noncommercial uses. For the commercial space, an easy and
efficient way to allocate and license spectrum is through
auction authority. Now we are in a situation where spectrum can
be auctioned but the ability to use auction revenues to fund
Next Generation 9-1-1 doesn't exist. So there are opportunities
here.
I would, first off, take a look at the FCC and say, ``Look,
I know you have proceedings in the 4.9 gig band or other
proceedings here that may not fall within the purview of the
restrictions or the reallocations of 9-1-1 funding under the
reconciliation bill. Are there opportunities there to take a
look at additional spectrum that could possibly be auctioned
off to support funding for Next Generation 9-1-1?''
Mr. Pallone. OK. And then the second question is that
someone suggested that Congress needs to seek a new cost
estimate for Next Generation 9-1-1 before passing a bill. But I
think this is not only unnecessary but also further delays
long-overdue action to invest in our public safety networks.
So, Dr. Fontes, do you think we need another cost estimate
for Next Generation 9-1-1.
Dr. Fontes. No, but I think raising the question is an
appropriate thing to ask. You know, do we need additional
research or studies to assess costs? I don't think we do. And
the reasons are, first off, the FCC collects, as part of their
annual 9-1-1 report, how much States are investing in Next
Generation 9-1-1. So that would give a clear indication of how
States are progressing in their efforts to deploy Next
Generation 9-1-1.
I also think that if the allocation of funds were available
and managed correctly in working with State 9-1-1 authorities,
local governments, and so forth, we would be able to see how
that money is rolled out and deploying Next Generation 9-1-1 so
as to not just dump a pot of money and say, ``OK, it is yours,
have fun with it.'' It is looking at a pot of money and
managing it wisely. And who knows, with State investment as
well as Federal investment, we may achieve Next Generation 9-1-
1 sooner rather than later.
Mr. Pallone. Well, thank you.
I am going to ask Mr. Newton and Mr. Wright, if you have
time. I think you know that Mr. Bilirakis and I have a bill,
the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. And I know, Mr. Newton, you
emphasized the need to ensure access to AM radio in vehicles.
Can I ask you, Mr. Newton, and if time, Mr. Wright, can you
explain why access to AM radio in vehicles is vital for
protecting the public during disastrous situations, and what
are the potential consequences if new vehicles do not include
access to AM radio?
We will start with Mr. Newton and see if we have time for
Mr. Wright.
Mr. Newton. Thank you, sir. The AM, it remains important to
us, remains relevant to us as far as alerts and warnings. It
covers greater than 90 percent of the population where
Americans live now. It is something that is--you know, we enjoy
that as being an existing pathway to make these notifications.
As we have migrated--if vehicles are allowed to migrate away
from having a--guaranteed that it has an AM radio in it, then
we are faced with--we have lost a tool in the toolbox. And I
think, again, it still remains relevant today, just as relevant
as an IP-based tool.
Mr. Pallone. All right. There is only 7 minutes. Mr.
Wright, do you want to say anything quick?
Mr. Wright. Sure. Make no mistake about it, AM radio is a
critical tool in the tool chest. Fifty-two public radio
stations operate in the AM band, and AM is the perfect, perfect
vehicle for a project like BEACON for an always-on alerting
channel.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentleman from Georgia, the vice chair
of the subcommittee, Mr. Allen, for 5 minutes for your
questions.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Chairman Hudson, for holding this
important hearing today. And to our expert witnesses, thank you
for joining us.
Last year, my district suffered catastrophic damage and
loss from Hurricane Helene. This was a once-in-a-hundred-year
hurricane. Never before have we seen such damage in both the
central Savannah River area and all of eastern Georgia. You can
imagine, hundred-year-old trees and losing 40 percent of our
treescape.
And, in fact, the first press conference that we had with
the Governor there, the State director was asked the question,
How do we know where the shelters and the water and the food
supplies will be the locations? And he said, ``Go to our
website.'' We had no power, no internet, and, of course, all
the television stations were there covering the press
conference, and no television for 10 days. So you can see that
we have got some work to do.
In the weeks after this hurricane, we had disruptions, as I
mentioned, and danger to both personal safety and properties.
Simply reinforce--I want to simply reinforce how vital it is
that we guarantee our public safety officials can always be
assured that their communications will not be disrupted,
especially during times of emergency.
Sheriff Dicus and Mr. Newton, how has the market for public
services changed in the last 10 years?
Sheriff Dicus. So the market--going back to your point--and
you might have a great point, OK, the website is not available.
How do we know? One of the things we are doing in our county--
and obviously, everybody has one of these cell phones for the
most part now--is creating apps. We have Ready SB County as the
app. So a lot of the predictive technologies that will happen
in a fire, flood, mudslide--we had Snowmageddon similar to kind
of what you are describing that we--in Southern California, of
all places.
But the market going--it is kind of--we have talked about
various medias here today. The market is really all the medias.
And we are looking at things generationally also. Certain
people ingest things differently than others. And if we don't
take that into part of this conversation, then we are missing
the point. Same thing with first responders. If we don't
develop a robust broadband network, they are going to figure
out how to do it on their own with this device here. So the
market has changed significantly.
And then also you talk about let's go into the sky. In my
county, I have the San Andreas Fault. I have two main dispatch
centers for that purpose and that purpose alone in terms of
engineering reports that have been done. If that fault goes,
they are going to certainly separate. We are also looking at
Starlink and looking at the sky so that we cannot just have our
safety broadband network but augment it to where we can hit a
satellite and still communicate voice over IP with the systems
that we are talking about here today.
Mr. Allen. OK. Mr. Newton?
Mr. Newton. Thank you. A lot of the areas that I respond
to, it just--these conditions, they change. What is working
today may not necessarily be working tomorrow. We have--I
believe in Yancey County we have at least 13 A-frame sandwich
boards in central parts of different communities. That is how
we shared information for the first several weeks.
During Helene, we also were able to take advantage of low
Earth orbit satellite systems. I think there is still an
opportunity for the very small after--satellite systems to keep
some of these other devices online. We would much rather have
an actual cell site instead of a deployable, but our ability to
work through that--and, in fact, many communities now, once the
deployables were introduced by the carriers, we have now
invested in our own. And we just coordinate with the carriers
to make sure that we are not the cause of harmful interference.
Mr. Allen. Mr. Newton, obviously, do you feel better about
the options that we have today versus 10 years ago, and why did
you choose FirstNet over another service?
Mr. Newton. So we choose--we actually have a diverse series
of systems that we use. So we use the big three, you know:
FirstNet, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Because, again, in my office,
we can't fail. Everything always has to work.
What FirstNet has given us is that--that dedicated core
specifically for public safety. The use of Band 14, which they
were allocated, that allows, again, that dedicated to public
safety activities. I know during Tropical Storm Chantal, I took
advantage of it when I had to set off our WEA system. I was
able to--in the midst of the storm, I was able to connect using
my FirstNet device to the software that actually sets off our
WEA system.
Mr. Allen. OK. Thank you very much.
Thank you to our witnesses. I have a few more questions I
will submit for the record, and I appreciate your response on
that.
And I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I will now recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Soto,
for 5 minutes of your questions.
Mr. Soto. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And let me start with a thank you. I know we have a lot of
law enforcement, firefighters, first responders in the room,
including the sheriff. We appreciate all that you do to help
protect us. And that is what this discussion is about today:
saving lives and responding to emergencies, including natural
disasters.
I represent central Florida. We have urban, suburban, and
rural areas, so we have to respond to all different types of
scenarios.
For years, this committee has had a lot of great bipartisan
work on using spectrum auction funds. The FirstNet, which we
heard from today about; Rip-and-replace, to help remove Chinese
telecommunications equipment that is spying on Americans; and,
of course, broadband on deployment.
But we have seen a departure from that lately with the
deeply unpopular Big Ugly law, using that spectrum funding for
the first time for billionaire tax cuts over public safety and
disaster response. I know for Florida that is not a good deal
for us. Add in mass firings at FEMA, cuts to next-generation
warning systems through public broadcasting through the
rescission package, as well as a rural broadband program that
has been stalled for 8 months ever since the President got
elected. This partisanship has come at a really terrible time.
We see hurricanes getting more extreme due to climate
change in Florida. We have 3 months to go. I know Mr. Wright
knows what I am talking about there. And our farmers, they are
being hammered right now: Trump's tariffs, rising input costs,
and a shrinking farm workforce due to mass deportation. The
least we can do is get them internet as quick as we can.
And then as far as public safety, we can reduce crime and
enhance public safety by continuing to fund the COPS Program to
support local law enforcement. When we see a cut requested by
the President for the COPS Program, I think we need to stand
strong in Congress to support our local law enforcement. And we
could reauthorize FirstNet with potential improvements and
reforms that we are here to talk about today, as well as Next
Generation 9-1-1, including satellite, which I know Mr. Newton
talked about, among other technologies.
Sheriff Dicus, thank you for being here. I know Mr. Aguilar
would be pleased to know that you are here today, and I know
Mr. Ruiz as well,
My first question, you had mentioned that Next Generation
9-1-1 gives you better situational awareness, so I wanted to
give you an opportunity to elaborate. How does it give you
better situational awareness?
Sheriff Dicus. I am so glad you asked that question. So
when we talk about it--and I will just give you an example. We
have an app called QuickCapture. We are fortunate to have Esri,
the--GIS works for DoD and does a number of things using GIS
technology. But I will give you an example of a fire.
When we go in, we give a warning. You generally have a law
enforcement officer go through the same neighborhoods and say,
``Hey, this be coming, get ready to go,'' that type of thing.
We will have people that say whether they are going to go or
refuse to go. We can immediately, with this application using
GIS technology, which runs on a broadband network, to be able
to say, ``Shannon Dicus is not leaving.'' So now when it goes
from a warning to mandatory, we know we can go directly back to
him: ``Look, it is imminent, the fire is going to hit, you have
to leave now.''
So that situational awareness of the public, also
situational awareness of your deputies and law enforcement
officers and fire personnel in the field. Then also, we
remember, after-action reports are critically important so we
do a better job next time. We can map every place a law
enforcement officer or a firefighter was at to see if we hit
the proper coverage areas, what communication systems are
working and got us to those points.
So it is amazing the technology that is available to law
enforcement and first responders now to really do that analysis
and give folks like you feedback, to give you really what I
call street view.
Mr. Soto. Thank you, Sheriff.
Mr. Wright, welcome to Washington. You talked about the
BEACON radio station and FPREN. How critical is public
broadcasting to our rural areas around Alachua County, south
Osceola, and Orange County?
We all know, when all else fails, the car radio is the last
resort. I know that from personal experience. It would be great
if you could discuss that a little bit.
Mr. Wright. Sure. Well, thank you for your question.
You know, truly, the infrastructure that the American
taxpayers and Congress has invested in for decades in the
public broadcasting transmission system, that truly is our last
mile. The discussions about enhanced 9-1-1 are great.
And this hits personally very close to home. My son-in-law
is a Missouri State trooper in St. Louis. I sat on the Florida
Highway Patrol Advisory Council. I understand how critically
important that is that the public is able to communicate, our
first responders are able to communicate. But once we get that
information to our agencies, then they are alerting, and their
advisory information has to get to the public in a very
resilient environment. And that is what that public
broadcasting infrastructure investment has been about for 50 to
60 years.
We need to maintain that investment to ensure that the
citizens of Florida and South Carolina and Missouri and every
other State in the country has easy, unfettered access to these
critical alerts and advisories.
Mr. Soto. Thanks. My time has expired.
Mr. Hudson. I thank the gentleman.
I now recognize the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Latta, for 5
minutes of his questions.
Mr. Latta. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. And thanks for our witness
for being with us today, and for holding this really important
hearing.
I recently met with the Crawford County Sheriff's
Department in my district where they demonstrated how they
utilized FirstNet to ensure they have reliable communication
and respond to emergencies. And as one of the Republicans and
one of the early Members who was here that, when we created the
FirstNet program, I must say, seeing first it deployed through
my district and the Nation shows how this true public-private
partnership has been tremendously successful.
Sheriff Dicus, if I could start with you. Congress created
FirstNet to ensure that public safety has a seat at the table
when the coverage decisions are made. And let me say, early on
when we have had those initial hearings, there was a kind of a
disconnect from Washington and thought it was going to impose
its decisions and how I thought it was going to run and kind of
forgot to talk to the folks at the local and State levels. And,
fortunately, we saw a real change that came about from that.
But could you speak to the uniqueness this network offers
for the public safety community when we talk about FirstNet?
Sheriff Dicus. Absolutely. First of all, you mentioned it,
and I think this is where major county sheriffs becomes the
best resource for all of you, and it is what I mentioned
earlier in terms of street view, how are our troops out there
on the streets actually interacting and what works the best and
to have our opinions about these things. But when you talk
about governance and the way that FirstNet is rolled out, for
the first time, law enforcement and those professionals that
are using that are part of those groups in terms of the
implementation across the country and certainly in our State
and locally.
So it gives us a voice we haven't had before. But, more
importantly, for all of you, allows you to hear how this
affects us, what is going on in the streets, and how we use
that technology to better service to the public.
Mr. Latta. In your testimony, under your FirstNet
infrastructure security, you got some areas in here that are
kind of scary because we are talking about, you know, you
responded to vandalism, sabotage, targeted acts of terrorism
against towers and network modes. And, you know, you are
talking about wanting to make sure you have the resilience of
the system, which requires both digital and physical security
measures.
Could you talk about this? I know what you are talking
about on the security side. What about on the digital side on
how you protect it?
Sheriff Dicus. So it was mentioned--and we just kind of
surface touched it--on the digital side related to
cybersecurity, having almost DoD-type of audit processes for
our system. We are talking about critical information, not just
to service the public but also to different assets across the
United States, critical infrastructure that we all work to
protect.
It is almost the 10-year anniversary of what we call
December 2. But the second-largest terrorist attack occurred in
San Bernardino County. And in that area, at first when those
things happen, you don't know. Is that the primary target? What
is the purpose? So you start setting out to look at your
critical infrastructure, the physical protection, and from a
cybersecurity perspective being able to protect those. But it
is really the audits and identifying the vulnerabilities
leading up to that, both on the physical side and the technical
side. And there is a lot of expertise here at the Federal
Government level. If that could be shared with the locals, it
would certainly enhance those security measures.
Mr. Latta. Excellent. Mr. Newton, as you know, there is a
sunset for the FirstNet program, and Congress will need to
reauthorize it by the end of 2026. Is there any length of time
you believe would be appropriate for reauthorization?
Mr. Newton. And I am sorry, could you repeat that?
Mr. Latta. Yes, with the sunset for FirstNet program and
Congress will need to reauthorize it by the end of 2026, do you
believe there is any length of time that would be appropriate
for the reauthorization for FirstNet?
Mr. Newton. Yes, overall it is a 20, 25-year project. I
don't really have a clear opinion on it. I think what is
important to me is the oversight, is the making sure we are
meeting the goals that we set. I think it is establishing
recovery--again, one of the themes I bring up frequently is
recovery-time objectives. You know, making sure that those are
being met, and especially with each new disaster, because they
are not going to be fewer. But the next one that we see, let's
revisit it. And how are we doing? What progress are we making?
So, you know, I am not sure I can put a timeframe on that.
Mr. Latta. OK. Let me just follow up in my last 33 seconds
I have got here. You know, in your experience responding to
disasters, has the IPAWS system been effective for transmitting
emergency alerts to impact the communities?
Mr. Newton. And I am sorry, that----
Mr. Latta. In your experience responding to disasters, has
the IPAWS system been effective for transmitting emergency
alerts to impact the communities?
Mr. Newton. Yes. I think the technology is effective. I
think that the things that we need to work on is our training,
our ability to set the systems off, our reliance on it, and the
public's response to a warning. Do they behave--do they
actually do the response that we have asked them to, the
protective action?
Mr. Latta. Thank you very much. My time has expired, and I
yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentleman from California, Dr. Ruiz,
for 5 minutes for your questions.
Mr. Ruiz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As a physician and Member of Congress representing
medically underserved rural southern California, I cannot
overstate the importance of reliable broadband infrastructure
for public health and safety.
In rural communities across the Coachella Valley and
Imperial Valleys and in rural San Bernardino County, in my
districts, access to emergency care and telehealth can mean the
difference between life and death. Many residents, including
working families, face barriers to care due to poor internet
connectivity. These challenges are worsened by long travel
distances, provider shortages, and the recently passed
Republican Big Ugly Bill are going to make those worse. Nearly
$1 trillion to Medicaid cuts. Hospitals will close, meaning
people are going to be more uninsured, needing more specialty
care, increased chronic illness. They are going to have to
travel longer distances. So it is like we took 10 giant steps
back, and we are trying to make one tiny step forward with this
hearing.
And broadband is no longer a luxury. It is essential
infrastructure for the common good. Rural residents are at risk
for not having good broadband, and not having connection is a
risk for chronic illness.
In 2019, the FCC found that 17 percent of rural Americans
lacked broadband versus only 1 percent of urban residents. The
CDC also links poor internet access to higher rates of chronic
conditions and worse health outcomes. Having broadband is a
social determinant of health.
Broadband is vital for veterans, patients managing chronic
diseases, remote monitoring, and seniors relying on remote
specialists. It is also important for first responders to
respond to emergencies.
Sheriff Dicus, from your perspective, how do unreliable
broadband and outdated safety networks hinder law enforcement
coordination during disasters?
Sheriff Dicus. I am sorry. Dr. Ruiz, a number of things
that you said we use regularly. I think you have experienced
where you actually have an emergency situation in the field,
you are talking to the doctor at the emergency room before you
even move the patient.
So those things are critically important, broadband across
the rural areas, as you are requesting, but it is even
something simpler as saving lives. So, unfortunately, we deal
with a lot of school shootings and things with major county
sheriffs and law enforcement really across the Nation. If you
think about your ability to have that situational awareness,
you are going after the threat, you are trying to stop the
threat, but there are children that have been shot.
Being able to direct your medical emergency personnel into
them saves lives. You can't just secure the area. You have got
to move. It is a moving, actionable, ongoing event.
Mr. Ruiz. Let me ask you another question. Does Needles and
Lake Havasu, the area in San Bernardino that I represent, use
NG 9-1-1?
Sheriff Dicus. They are. They are transitioning, and that
is a very unique area because of the borders involved, as you
well know. And even on the lake we have multiple jurisdictions
as a result of that. So, yes, we are using that technology.
Mr. Ruiz. Thank you. You know, because we need to modernize
and expand our emergency communication systems, which is why I
strongly support the NG, Next Generation, 9-1-1. Our 9-1-1 call
centers must be able to receive real-time text, photos, and
videos to enhance emergency response and protect both callers
and first responders. But this only works if the digital
backbone is strong.
In my district, we have already seen the consequences of
aging infrastructure. Copper wire theft has disrupted 9-1-1
service, delaying emergency response and endangering lives.
According to the GAO, insufficient broadband infrastructure
in rural areas contributes to slower response times as first
responders cannot always access critical information in
realtime. Slower response time in the emergency department
means, if you are having a stroke, you are more likely to die
or have permanent damage. Same thing with cardiac arrest or
heart attacks.
Dr. Fontes, given your leadership at National Emergency
Number Association, what should Congress do to retire old
systems and equip public safety answering points, or PSAPs, for
NG 9-1-1?
Dr. Fontes. Thank you for your question.
If I am looking at public safety writ large from the field
responders to the public who calls 9-1-1, the weakest link in
this whole chain is Next Generation 9-1-1. You talk about
broadband capabilities that the public would have available to
them and the ability to transmit information to 9-1-1. Well, if
that 9-1-1 center is not Next Generation 9-1-1-capable or is
voice-centric--in other words, rich information is removed--you
lose valuable information----
Mr. Ruiz. Yes, sir.
Dr. Fontes [continuing]. Valuable time.
What Congress can do, and I have said this on multiple
occasions----
Mr. Ruiz. You have 5 seconds.
Dr. Fontes [continuing]. Is to ensure funding for Next
Generation 9-1-1.
Mr. Ruiz. Thank you. And with that, I yield back my time.
Mr. Hudson. Well done. Thank you.
The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Virginia, Mr.
Griffith, for 5 minutes to ask your questions.
Mr. Griffith. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I
appreciate it.
Mr. Newton, I know that your part of North Carolina is a
little bit east of the part that I border, but my district is
very mountainous, and I border a big chunk of North Carolina,
from Henry County, which would be Martinsville area, all the
way to where the Virginia-North Carolina line ends.
We weren't hit as hard, but we were hit by Helene. And,
interestingly, in the areas most hard hit, all of my cell
service went down. So I am out driving around the day
afterwards and actually had an employee who I lost for several
hours. The good news is we didn't have any water fatalities. We
had two that were related to wind, but we didn't have any
actual water fatalities in my district, but we had significant
damage. And all the cell phone towers, for whatever reason, and
it was--it turns out it was different reasons in different
areas. Because I tried to find the common thread and couldn't.
So what can we do to harden our communication
infrastructures so that we don't have that problem again?
Because in Grayson County, they had one hot spot in downtown
Independence, right on--and that is on the North Carolina
border. In Damascus, we had to bring in low Earth orbit
Starlink. There was a mobile unit available in Wise County that
the health wagon brought over. And then later, FirstNet showed
up, apparently, or in some kind of conjunction there,
eventually.
But what can we do to harden our existing structure? And
should we be looking at leapfrogging to go to low Earth orbit
as a part--I know that FirstNet's looking at that. But what
should we be doing? Because every locality has problems,
particularly in western North Carolina and southwestern
Virginia. They all have problems coming up with the funding.
And low Earth orbit looks like it is a more affordable way to
go than some of the others. What say you?
Mr. Newton. So I think--there is a couple of different
approaches that are relevant here. I think there is the trying
to prevent a site from going down, and then there is also
trying to compress the time that that site is down if we do
meet that threshold. So I think the--preventing the site from
going down, you know, hardening measures at the sites, things
to prevent vandalism. There is the things that cause our
problems. They lose a link on a fiber link, so they don't have
data or they lose power, and usually those are not independent
of each other. Usually we have some combination of that.
So on the side of losing the connectivity, what we found--
and this is, you know, as low Earth orbit satellite
constellations are improved, this will likely change. But there
is also a capacity issue with those. So we may balance it with
a VSAT, which is slightly slower but a more dedicated carved-
out line.
Mr. Griffith. All right. For everybody back home, VSAT.
Mr. Newton. I am sorry. Very small aperture terminal.
Mr. Griffith. OK.
Mr. Newton. That is a satellite service. It is in a
geosynchronous orbit, slightly lower bandwidth, but it is
still--it is a carved-out, dedicated pathway.
What we saw is, early on, our low Earth orbit satellite
terminals, the Starlink, they provide us connectivity very
quickly, very easy, easy to deploy. At some point you reach a
capacity. So there is that side of it.
There is also--what we do in our State USC, many State USCs
do, is that combination or that partnership with the carriers
to bring them in to, How do we get your services back up? Where
are the services down? What can we do to help those carriers
get them back up?
And then the last thing I would leave you with would be
the--when we had--western North Carolina, just like in West
Virginia--the western portion of Virginia--are difficult areas
to provide data services in. And so what tends to happen is we
put all of our carriers on one fiber optic line. And so if that
one line is hit by a tree, by a landslide, whatever it may be,
then all the services on that fiber line go down.
Mr. Griffith. Yes, and I don't know how you solve that
because we got so many--it is mountainous, there is lots of
little valleys and so forth. That is hard. I will say, as far
as being able to respond quickly. In Caswell County, at least
the first responders were able to get their radio system back
up and running because somebody knew exactly what to do. They
went to the tower and started the generator, which for whatever
reason hadn't started itself, but one of their--one of their
team knew that is where they needed to go and they got it taken
care of fairly quickly in that county. But there were other
places where it took days before we got everything back up and
running. So I do appreciate that.
Looks like my time is out, and I appreciate all of you
being here today. This is an important issue.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I will now recognize the gentleman from California, Mr.
Peters, for 5 minutes for your questions.
Mr. Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
important hearing.
And there has been a lot of agreement here. I don't want to
go over a lot of ground that has already been tread. I think
all of us in this committee really want to help our first
responders make the best decisions and keep all of our
respective communities safe across the country.
I would say, you know, we have suffered a couple setbacks
in this effort on funding. One is we had an agreement that we
would use spectrum auction proceeds to fund this, and that
money went into the big bill. And so now the work we have done
on this committee has taken a little bit of a hit.
I would say also, I got to say on rescissions that this is
a really difficult thing for this body. You make a deal with
the other side, and you go--you talk about things like public
broadcasting and whether it should be publicly funded because
it is broadcasting or whether it should be publicly funded
because it helps you with emergency access. And we make a deal,
we shake hands, the President signs it. And then you go back
and you swipe out what you don't like. And it makes it really
hard to continue to work, even on stuff that we agree on, when
we do practices like that.
So I am hoping that my colleagues--appreciating you may not
agree with that particular policy--will understand and maybe
resist the temptation to do this anymore.
We have got to get back to working together. We have got to
get back to understanding that this institution has an
independent duty, the power of the purse. We all should stand
up for it, even on the items--particular items we might not
agree with. But when it is important to the whole agreement and
the whole--ability of us to make progress and trust each other,
trust is what it is all about in this room.
Sheriff Dicus, I want to ask you a particular question to
build on some of this stuff that has happened. I took a ride-
along with my local police department in San Diego. One thing I
noticed was how primitive the technology was in the car to tell
you where to go. And so what I saw--first of all, it is all by
radio. It seems like each officer decides where he or she will
go based on a screen that looks like it could have been from
the '80s.
Will Next Generation 9-1-1 help--in the car help those
officers get to the right place, maybe help response times,
maybe prioritize calls in a way that we haven't been able to do
with technology before?
Sheriff Dicus. The answer is, yes, sir, it will. You are
looking at primitive technology, and a lot of it is causing us
to replace computer automated dispatch systems and things of
that nature. And you are running on legacy systems. So instead
of using something modern like Apple CarPlay to be able to get
from call to call, you are using an archaic system.
So you are absolutely right there. That is why you will see
a lot of the officers, and I am sure you did on your ride-
along, actually, go to technology like this.
So having that reliable broadband network--and what is
going to drive that is the amount of data that a first
responder can actually ingest now.
You have heard the concept real-time crime center? That is
the data--that is the data reception center to be able to work
on a broadband network and then transfer that back out to the
field so that you have real-time operational data.
Mr. Peters. How does the Federal Government participate in
making sure that that technology is available and maybe
standardized and maybe ultimately adopted?
Sheriff Dicus. Yes, I mentioned earlier policy and
governance, giving some direct guidelines so that public safety
can always be on the latest and greatest system, and also the
funding sources. Unfortunately, any type of technological
advancement you get you can almost count on, as a local agency,
there is going to be a 5 percent uplift every year, and it just
becomes cost prohibitive for both counties and local
jurisdictions.
Mr. Peters. Well, you know, we are from relatively large
organizations in terms of sheriff and police. I mean, I imagine
that for smaller outfits it is even more difficult. I mean, can
the Federal Government assist with that?
Sheriff Dicus. So it is kind of interesting in terms of the
implementation. I call it--in a county as big as your county
and as big as mine, I call it the have and have-nots. Smaller
jurisdictions, if the funding is available, can actually turn
much quicker than the larger ones, because I have to make what
works, as was mentioned out in Needles earlier, all the way to
my very populated and urban areas.
So the small areas and small police departments, if they
have the money, can usually turn on a dime and get this fairly
quickly. So, again, making that funding available.
Mr. Peters. Well, here in Congress I think we all
appreciate the risk of bureaucracy in larger organizations. So
thanks for bringing that up.
I would say FirstNet is up for reauthorization in 2027. I
am glad we are starting meaningful conversations. I made my
caveat about working together. I hope people take it seriously.
And I hope we can make some improvements to improve the program
for the benefit of our first responders who we all care about.
And with that, I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. I thank the gentleman.
I recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Bilirakis, for
5 minutes to ask your questions.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it
very much. Thanks for holding this hearing.
During my district work period, I was able to tour the
Citrus County emergency response center under the direction of
Sheriff David Vincent and see firsthand how FirstNet is
facilitating lifesaving operations for my constituents but all
over the State of Florida.
The sheriff highlighted how FirstNet has advanced--it has
really enhanced officer safety and response time. Specifically,
the increased connectivity has allowed his deputies to be able
to upload body cam footage from within their vehicles as
opposed to having to drive to a separate location to upload.
So, Mr. Newton, I have a question. From your experience,
what can you say about response times and information sharing
among emergency personnel pre- versus post-FirstNet
implementation?
Mr. Newton. Thank you for the question. What we have seen
primarily has been--historically, if we had a call for you, we
would call you on a land mobile radio and tell you over voice
this is where your call is, this is the address, these are the
conditions that are occurring. And that is if everything worked
fine and the weather is great and the radio transmission went
through.
Now, that police officer, that sheriff's deputy, that
paramedic, have a terminal in their car that oftentimes we
don't even have to say the words. The call gets sent to them
digitally. The information is there. The chance for us to give
you an address incorrectly is taken off of the table. And then
the rich content, if we had video, if we had files associated,
if we have a history associated with an address, all of those
things are then part of this ecosystem that this responder is
now working in. And that is the most significant change that we
have seen, that the rich data that they immediately have access
to.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you very much.
Next question. Every so often we hear about the 9-1-1
outages impacting communities. Just in July, a 9-1-1 outage
affected six Florida counties, including Citrus and Pasco
County, which I represent. Ultimately, in this instance, the
outage was due to an inadvertently cut cable. However, it
raises question about emergency operation redundancy and
security.
So, Mr. Newton, again, what procedures do you have in place
in the event of a 9-1-1 outage, and what are your
recommendations for ensuring continuity of 9-1-1 services that
would help prevent the frequency of these outages around the
country?
Mr. Newton. The biggest threat to any 9-1-1 system is a
backhoe. What we implement in 9-1-1 centers across North
Carolina ideally is a disparate pathway. So it physically comes
in at a different angle from a different street, if possible,
for fiber lines or any of our backup lines. And in some cases,
that is not. We discussed in western North Carolina sometimes
you only have one path, or that last mile may be shared by, you
know, two different carriers coming in, but then they share
that last mile to your building, your physical structure, and
that is at risk.
One of the projects that North Carolina is working on now
is an AT&T FirstNet additional backhaul, where an additional
AVPN, or AT&T Virtual Private Network, that is solely over
FirstNet, it takes advantage of the security of the core of
FirstNet, and it becomes a wireless--at least as immune to the
backhoe--that will guarantee that we still have at least one
more pathway into that 9-1-1 center to provide telephony, to
provide data.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you for that.
Dr. Fontes, looking forward to the future, we must. We have
a number of hearings--we have had a number of hearings in this
committee on AI. How do you envision AI being utilized to
enhance emergency response in the future, and how can Congress
help to make that the reality? Dr. Fontes, please.
Dr. Fontes. Thank you. Thank you for that question. I am a
real strong believer in any new technology. AI is that.
I think in the 9-1-1 field right now, it is early, it is an
early entrant. But looking into the future, to your question, I
think AI can do a lot to enhance the information coming into
the 9-1-1 center and ultimately distribute it to those who are
the field responders. You can do simultaneous translations. You
may be able to assess the situational awareness by factors that
the human eye or the human ear cannot detect so easily. That
would allow that 9-1-1 professional to perhaps follow up with
more specific questions.
Being able to garner that information is critically
important to make sure that our field responders are fully
prepared for the situation that they are going to participate
in.
Mr. Bilirakis. Makes sense. I appreciate it very much.
And I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Michigan, Mrs.
Dingell, for 5 minutes of questioning.
Mrs. Dingell. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Every day we see firsthand the critical need to modernize
our emergency communications infrastructure. Whether it is
upgrading 9-1-1 systems, expanding coverage for first
responders, or ensuring our weather alert systems are reliable,
these investments directly impact public safety across the
country.
Since I have been in Congress, I have fought for and
secured funding to upgrade communications technology because
our first responders deserve strong and resilient tools to
protect our communities.
As cochair of the EMS Caucus, with Chair Hudson, I know how
critical these issues are. Our first responders work around the
clock under immense pressure, and the least we can do is to
ensure they have reliable systems that help save lives. These
upgrades are tangible. They include faster response times,
uninterrupted 9-1-1 service during power outages, and
lifesaving information delivered to our communities. And as the
need grows, resources aren't keeping up.
I am going to join my other colleagues in expressing my
concern that the spectrum auction proceeds from President
Trump's One Big--I use different adjectives--Beautiful Bill are
being diverted to pay for tax breaks rather than used for Next
Generation 9-1-1 and other public safety. But having said that,
let me start with local weather notification systems.
Last year, a tornado struck southeast Michigan without any
advanced warning, resulting in the death of a 2-year-old boy.
To put things in perspective, Michigan typically experiences
about 13 to 15 tornadoes in an entire year. As of late August
2025, this year's total of tornadoes is 30. More than double
the average.
In the summer, during another period of extreme severe
weather, NOAA's All Hazards weather radios went completely
offline, leaving parts of my district in the dark. These radios
are essential to public safety, especially in our low-
connectivity communities where internet and cellular-based
alerts aren't reliable or available. And when they fail, lives
are at risk, as all of you know.
Mr. Newton, the failure of the NOAA radios, coupled with
the lack of a tornado warning last year, shows we need more
than just a fix. We need redundancy and backup plans. What
should we be doing to strengthen resiliency in our emergency
alert systems to ensure they don't fail during life-threatening
weather events?
Mr. Newton. Thank you for that question. I think,
specifically for the National Weather Service warning--weather
alert radios--again, it is ongoing. None of these projects are
a one-time. They require continued sustained funding, whether
it is upgrades, updates, maintenance, the technical expertise
to do those repairs, all of those are absolutely essential.
I think also, we live in an ecosystem of warning and
notification in alert systems. There is no one approach that
successfully warns a public. Part of that is also the
redundancy that we built in. What we really like about NOAA
weather alert radios is the fact they make a lot of noise, and
they will wake you up at 2 o'clock in the morning, especially
for the unexpected incident that is occurring, but, you know,
encouraging additional redundancies and defense in-depth with
more than one way to receive a notification.
Mrs. Dingell. Thank you.
Mr. Wright, we have heard reports of budget constraints and
staffing shortages at NOAA, the National Weather Service, FEMA
may be impacting the ability to upgrade systems and maintain
operations. How do budget cuts and staffing shortages impact
coordination and reliability and the ability to respond quickly
to emergencies?
Mr. Wright. Well, they make an extraordinary impact across
the entire spectrum. The scientists, the experts at the
National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center,
throughout the NOAA culture, they are experts that provide us
with this alerting information that then, flowing through the
FEMA IPAWS system, goes to the public broadcasting
infrastructure which exists across the entire country, and
through the PBS WARN System, which is the redundant system for
our wireless emergency alerts.
So these are really critical questions that we have to
wrestle with today. But at the end of the day, part of a
solution is innovation, utilizing the infrastructure that we
have been investing in for years and years, and that is the
public broadcasting infrastructure, that last mile.
Our BEACON project, which does incorporate artificial
intelligence in the most responsible possible way, takes these
alerts coming directly from the National Weather Service, the
National Hurricane Center, county emergency agencies, and then
translates those directly into a 24-hour always-on alerting
channel on the most resilient medium, which is broadcast radio.
We have seen this time and time again in Florida and South
Carolina, where during the worst of times, when these go down
and you lose internet connectivity and you lose everything else
that people think is their final, you know, word--no, no, no,
it is broadcast radio, and it is the work that is happening
through projects like FPREN and BEACON that are making the
difference.
We have to be afraid--have to be--not be afraid of
innovation and fully utilizing the infrastructure that exists
today and investing in that.
Mrs. Dingell. Thank you. I know I am out of time. I will
yield back, Mr. Chair, but I have more questions for the
record.
Mr. Hudson. Well, we will be happy to have you submit
those, and witnesses, I am sure, will be happy to respond.
I now recognize the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Carter, for
your 5 minutes of questions.
Mr. Carter of Georgia. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank
you for holding this hearing. And thank all of you for being
here.
Emergency communication is certainly important, and
certainly important in my district. I have the honor and
privilege of representing the entire coast of Georgia, over a
hundred miles of pristine coastline. And, of course, we have a
lot of hurricanes in our area, hurricanes as well as flooding.
In fact, Hurricane Helene was one of the most devastating
storms that we have ever had in south Georgia, and it certainly
was a challenge to our emergency communication.
It tore through the home State, through my home State, of
Georgia, and it wreaked havoc on cell towers and on fiber lines
and many other resources that were needed to have efficient
communication. And it went on up, as you know, Mr. Newton, into
western North Carolina. And certainly the devastation up there
was severe.
From your experience, Mr. Newton, managing hurricane
responses, what communication tools do local emergency managers
rely on most when cell towers and power infrastructure are
damaged?
Mr. Newton. Thank you for that question. Usually, at that
point--so our primary systems, our telephony, what we normally
rely on is down, there is no one solution, but what it tends to
be is a combination. So in the last--during Helene, it was a
lot of deployables where--whether it is a satellite COLT, or a
cell tower on a light truck, a COW, a Cell on Wheels, any
combination of a whole fleet across different carriers that--to
restore cell signals in a small area.
At the same time, our ability to pass information through a
whole community approach, we are sharing--you know, the AM
radio stations, PBS radio stations--we are sharing instant
information, we are sharing where the shelters are, where water
is. And that is--I would love to take credit for that, but they
took information that we were broadcasting, as well as other
sources, crafted it together, and they are a trusted local
source, and they put that information out as well.
Amateur radio, AuxComm, has always been with us, has always
been a tool for sharing information. And so we use that. I had
never been a huge proponent for low Earth orbit satellite
internet systems. I now own at least six because of that event.
Mr. Carter of Georgia. That is interesting. That is
interesting.
Well, let me ask you something. What about communicating
across jurisdictional lines? In the State of Georgia, we have
159 counties--a lot of counties, more than we really need--and
each of them have their own emergency management system, or at
least most of them do. What are the kind of challenges that you
face when you are going across jurisdictional lines like that?
Mr. Newton. So across any jurisdictional lines, you have
disparate radio systems that may be on a conventional UHF or a
VHF versus a trunked radio system. In North Carolina, we enjoy
a combined 700, 800 megahertz trunked radio system that is
statewide. Statewide has links to Virginia, has links to South
Carolina, has links to Georgia, and our ability to patch things
in.
Within that, we dictate certain--as part of the statewide
interoperability committee, we dictate certain interoperability
channels and talk groups and frequencies that should be in any
radio in that system. And so as long as I can see you and we
have a radio program to the same system, we can find a way to
communicate.
Mr. Carter of Georgia. Well, let me ask you this. What kind
of improvements would you like to see after the experience that
you had with Hurricane Helene and the experiences that you have
had with other types of natural disasters? What kind of
improvements do you think would help local governments the
most?
Mr. Newton. Local governments, we had that period of time
immediately after a disaster where we couldn't communicate
using our traditional means. And there is that fog of not
knowing exactly what is happening, not knowing what resource--
we use a pool method. We generally don't send resources ahead
of time until we know what is needed, and that local emergency
manager calls it in and says, ``I need this, I need that.'' So
not having communications is really critical for us.
I think, again, hardening of the--especially in the high-
density area cell sites, having a recovery time objective.
Granted, an 8-day recovery of most of our cellular systems, you
know, 20--or 80-some percent of it is nothing short of
miraculous. It is not enough. We work in these environments. We
are relying on these systems communicating. It is a national
public safety broadband network. We needed it back up, like all
the other carriers.
Mr. Carter of Georgia. Great. Well, again, this is
extremely important. I thank all of you. Thank all of the
witnesses for being here.
And thank you, again, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
hearing, and I yield back.
Mr. Bilirakis [presiding]. The gentleman yields back.
I will recognize Representative Kelly for her 5 minutes of
questioning.
Ms. Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Ranking Member Matsui,
for holding this morning's hearing. And thank you to all of our
witnesses for participating.
The recent flooding in Illinois' Second Congressional
District, which I represent--which is Chicago, the suburbs, and
central Illinois--has once again underscored how crucial it is
for constituents to have reliable and timely access to public
safety alerts during natural disasters. When cellular networks
fail, as we have seen during major emergencies, alternative
communication pathways become a lifeline for communities.
Ensuring that all emergency systems, including 9-1-1
telecommunicators and public safety broadcast networks such as
FirstNet, are fully modernized, resilient, and properly funded
is essential to protecting lives and property.
Mr. Newton, as an emergency management director with
decades of experience responding to major disasters, you have
firsthand knowledge of how critical reliable communication
systems are for an effective emergency response. During events
like Hurricane Katrina, widespread outages of cellular networks
hampered response efforts and endangered lives. Based on your
experience, what improvements are the most urgent to ensure
that FirstNet remains resilient and operational during
prolonged power outages and physical damage?
Mr. Newton. Thank you for that question. I echo what I
mentioned before. I believe, you know, hardening of certain
facilities, you know, trying to prevent a single point of
failure anywhere in the network. I think, you know, sustained
funding to not only maintain the network but expand the
network. I think the other challenge that we continue to face
is coverage in rural areas and making sure that we continue to
expand in those areas as well.
Ms. Kelly. Thank you. As you have heard--we all heard--that
Chicago might get a visit from the National Guard. In light of
these threats to militarize cities like Chicago, how much will
such actions impact first responder communication systems and
their ability to coordinate effectively during real crises? And
what improvements are necessary to ensure our public safety
communication networks can withstand and adapt to disruptions
in such scenarios?
Mr. Newton. In my opinion, I think that it poses less a
technical challenge for us. The capacity is there, the radios
are there, the inoperability frequencies are there. I think it
is a leadership challenge in making sure that we have these
different groups and different organizations that are operating
within the same communities and making sure that they are
communicating.
I think the most dangerous thing that we would have would
be two different organizations that are not communicating and
create some encounter there. I think that that would be my
biggest concern, is that, you know, regardless of the
operations that are occurring, always talking.
Ms. Kelly. The Next Generation 9-1-1 Act is crucial for
modernizing emergency communications to handle today's data-
driven demands, yet many communities face barriers to its full
deployment. Dr.--is it ``Fonts''?
Dr. Fontes. Thank you. That is true.
Ms. Kelly. How would securing full funding for the Next
Generation 9-1-1 system improve the ability of emergency
services to receive and utilize critical data, including text,
photos, videos, during emergency calls?
Dr. Fontes. Thank you for the question. And it is a simple
question that is very complicated. The simple question is--the
simple answer is funding. And funding is essential. There is no
question about it. Communities, Tribal lands, rural areas may
have challenges maintaining both the legacy system while they
are transitioning to a Next Generation 9-1-1 system at cost.
So there is an opportunity here to move 9-1-1 into the 21st
century. As I said earlier, 9-1-1 is the weakest link between
the public in their broadband capabilities and public safety
responders with their broadband capabilities. 9-1-1--if in the
Next Generation 9-1-1 environment were to actually happen, the
information-rich associations with those calls coming in will
benefit the public, will benefit the ability of the field
responders to respond appropriately for the emergency register.
Funding is the key issue.
Ms. Kelly. Thank so much. And it is an issue. You know, I
have the city of Chicago, I have 4,500 farms in my district
too, in central Illinois, very rural areas. So it is so very
important.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Bilirakis. The gentlelady yields back.
I now recognize my good friend from the great State of
Texas, Mr. Pfluger, for his 5 minutes of questioning.
Mr. Pfluger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I applaud the
committee for having this hearing. It is obviously very
important, and I think a bipartisan issue that--we have talked
so much today--obviously, over the summer, we went through a
very tragic time and in a place, in a location, geographically
speaking, that is very hard at times to get connected and to
send alerts. And so my mind has been there all summer on, you
know, what it means to alert people. And I think this is
exactly the type of work this committee should be proud of
doing in a bipartisan way.
I will start with FirstNet. I hsave recently been connected
to FirstNet after the events happened, the flooding happened
this summer, and wanted--I think it is a good example of a
public-private partnership and wanted to dig in a little bit.
Some of these questions we have kind of danced around. So they
are going to be similar. But, Sheriff, I will start with you.
I know that there have been concerns expressed about how to
improve the oversight and the transparency of FirstNet and the
network. But I want to hear your experiences with FirstNet and
either challenges with signal strength or the system in
general, or the positive issues that you have seen from
FirstNet.
Sheriff Dicus. Thank you for that question.
Most of what we have seen is positive. The reality in a
county as large as mine is really the buildout. And it is also
a communications--in your case in Texas, the communications
before the event happened, staging things that the locals may
need, and a lot of what I see is we are driving down--in law
enforcement, we call this the mutual aid process. A lot of
times--and I will say it maybe sometimes be, like, a political
perspective, but it is being driven down. That process works
up. We call and ask for those. We stage assets both federally,
State, and locally, to be able to respond in the event the
weather changes.
So when we are talking about a broadband network, we are
talking about including AI, predictive technologies that can
run you through scenarios for the staging of that equipment and
prepare the first responders to be much quicker in an event
like you experienced is something we need. And FirstNet carries
that through. We just need more of it so we can guarantee that
connectivity.
Mr. Pfluger. Thank you for that.
And, Mr. Newton, I will go to you and just refer back to
Hurricane Helene and the experiences that you saw there from
the wireless emergency alerts--or excuse me--from FirstNet--
not--I am getting ahead of myself, but from FirstNet on
Hurricane Helene.
Mr. Newton. We saw, first and foremost, that the
partnerships at the State level of coordinating where we are
responding--or deploying equipment to where is the need, and
then throughout the event, as the event evolved, our ability to
move equipment around and make things work. Again, it was a
catastrophic disaster for us. Tremendous damage. Never seen
this much, from a technical side, the type of damage that we
saw to fiber optic lines and to power systems--our ability to
power cell sites.
But the close partnerships there and the fact that we have
several agencies that have their own deployables--and so I am
able just to set up my own FirstNet temporary compact rapid
deployable. And I think--the challenge I think we will see in
the near future is, as that becomes more prolific, we still
have to coordinate that with the carrier. We want to make sure
that we are not creating the interference.
Mr. Pfluger. Well, that brings up a good--just kind of a
good point. I mean, sometimes we can't stage. Sometimes we
can't predict, you know. In the case of the floods that
happened in my district and in Kerrville. I mean, that
highlights maybe the need for secondary options and the
challenges of getting into those rural places, which, whether
it is Hurricane Helene or it is in the hill country of Texas or
other places, sometimes you can't actually physically get
there. So, you know, I want to hear your thoughts on low Earth
orbit direct-to-device options that could be helpful in those
cases.
Mr. Newton. So one of my staff members deployed to Helene
the day after impact. And his task was to bring back
connectivity to PSAPs. And I believe--I don't know if it was
his first or his thirteenth PSAP that he arrived at, the person
greeted him at the door and said, ``I don't know what an angel
looks like, but I believe it is you.'' And his role was to
bring connectivity to a communication center who had been in
the dark from the time of impact.
And so, in fact, what he deployed was a low Earth orbit
satellite system, a Starlink system that provided WiFi and that
gave you WiFi calling, and that center was then reconnected
both with the public and your families who didn't know--those
telecommunicators--how they fared.
Mr. Pfluger. Well, thank you for that.
Again, I applaud the committee for the work on
reauthorizing and getting FirstNet, you know, moving in a
positive direction but also some other options.
And I think my time has expired. So I yield back.
Mr. Bilirakis. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Representative Menendez for his 5 minutes
of questioning.
Mr. Menendez. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here today, especially
those who are representing the public safety community. We
appreciate your dedication to keeping all Americans safe.
Mr. Chairman, we have heard a lot of talk about
strengthening public safety infrastructure from our colleagues
on the other side of the aisle today. But the Trump
administration and congressional Republicans have consistently
weakened our emergency management systems, endangering the
lives of Americans and first responders, and making us less
prepared when disasters strike.
It is not lost on me that we are holding this hearing on
the same week as the September 11th terrorist attacks, an
anniversary that is particularly salient in my district, which
was home to many of the first responders who answered the call
of duty that day--and to me personally. I was there across the
river in Hoboken and later served as a commissioner of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey. And so it is my belief
that we need to do everything possible to keep our first
responders safe, to give them the best equipment and technology
that we possibly can, something that I will do so long as I get
to serve in this role.
September 11th also revealed fundamental issues with our
Nation's public safety communications. And, while we have
improved our emergency preparedness, Republicans and President
Trump are heading us in the wrong direction. Republicans have
cut funding for public broadcasting, hindered the Next
Generation Warning System, and left Next Generation 9-1-1
without a dedicated source of funding. At the same time, the
Trump administration has gutted emergency preparedness funding,
including FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and
Communities Program, that supported hazard mitigation projects
in Hoboken, Bayonne, Newark--all municipalities I have the
privilege of representing.
It is extremely frustrating and disappointing that we find
ourselves here with all the work and progress that we have
made.
I would like to start my questioning with the importance of
Next Generation 9-1-1. New Jersey has experienced 75 natural
disasters, costing over $1 billion over the last 40 years. As a
New Jerseyan who lived through Superstorm Sandy, I know how
critical it is that we have effective emergency communications
infrastructure.
Sheriff, just a yes or no. Is upgrading our Nation's
emergency communications systems a lifesaving necessity?
Sheriff Dicus. Yes, sir.
Mr. Menendez. And Sheriff, how critical is upgrading our
Next Generation 9-1-1 systems for the cybersecurity and
resiliency of our Nation's emergency communications networks?
Sheriff Dicus. Critical.
Mr. Menendez. Thank you.
Dr. Fontes, you responded earlier to a question for Ranking
Member Pallone that there isn't currently a clear pathway to
fund Next Generation 9-1-1 through spectrum auction proceeds.
So just a yes or no. Sitting here today, would you feel more
confident about the future of Next Generation 9-1-1 if
Republicans had not walked away from a bipartisan agreement to
fund it through spectrum auctions?
Dr. Fontes. Yes, sir.
Mr. Menendez. Thank you.
I am incredibly concerned that Republicans have abandoned
this bipartisan agreement that would have used funding from the
FCC spectrum auction authority to fund Next Generation 9-1-1,
making our public safety networks less secure and less
resilient from cyber attacks. And all this is happening in the
context of the Trump administration's cuts to critical
cybersecurity initiatives for telecommunications networks at
CISA and other agencies.
Mr. Newton, Sheriff, does the Federal Government have an
essential role to play with respect to ensuring that we have
the cybersecurity capabilities to protect our emergency
communication systems? Yes or no?
Sheriff Dicus. Yes.
Mr. Newton. Yes, sir.
Mr. Menendez. And should we not be doing more to
collaborate with our local agencies who are on the front lines
to give you all the resources to ensure that as we improve our
communication systems that they are cybersecurity resilient?
Yes or no?
Mr. Newton. Yes, sir.
Sheriff Dicus. Yes, sir.
Mr. Menendez. Thank you.
Mr. Wright, congressional Republicans recently rescinded
funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ending its
role administering the Next Generation Warning System program
that helps local communities receive emergency alerts during
natural disasters.
Mr. Wright, is funding for the Next Generation Warning
System crucial for our Nation's public safety infrastructure?
Mr. Wright. Lifesaving.
Mr. Menendez. And how have cuts to the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting from the Republican rescissions package
affected funding for the Next Generation Warning System?
Mr. Wright. Profoundly. Congress, in its wisdom, since
fiscal year 2022 has appropriated $176 million to the Next
Generation Warning System.
Mr. Menendez. Thank you----
Mr. Wright. Right now, we have $100 million that is in
limbo. That money can be put to good use.
Mr. Menendez. Understood.
Mr. Wright, just yes or no. Following the shutdown of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, should FEMA take over
administering grants for the Next Generation Warning System?
Mr. Wright. Yes, I believe it should.
Mr. Menendez. Thank you. That is why I cowrote a letter
with my colleague Congresswoman Barragan demanding that the
Acting Administration--Administrator of FEMA take action.
But, in closing, this shouldn't be a Republican issue. It
shouldn't be a Democratic issue. This shouldn't even be a
bipartisan issue. This should be nonpartisan. We are finding
ourselves in times where this administration and my colleagues
across the aisle are being complicit in making us weaker and
less secure. We should be doing the exact opposite.
Thank you all so much for being here, for all the work that
you do.
Mr. Hudson [presiding]. I thank the gentleman.
I now recognize the gentlelady from Indiana, Ms. Houchin,
for 5 minutes to ask your questions.
Mrs. Houchin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member
Matsui. Thanks to you, to the witnesses for being here today
and for your testimony.
Last month I met with first responders in Ripley County,
Indiana. I saw firsthand the importance of reliable public
safety communications with FirstNet. I also represent a
district that has had its share of natural disasters, and I
know the importance of needing to have clear communication
systems throughout. It was great to see them share information
on how quickly and effectively resources can be deployed and
information can be exchanged with first responders to keep the
public safe.
In rural districts like mine, there are areas of the
district that are still what I would consider dead spots in
terms of communication services with traditional cellular
service. So FirstNet does provide that additional access for
our first responders in our less-than-covered areas.
But communication, as many of you have mentioned, is more
than convenient. It can be lifesaving. Today's hearing reminds
us that success requires Federal, State, and local partners all
rowing in the same direction. In a crisis, no single system can
carry the load. True resilience comes from interoperability,
making sure radio, cellular, satellite, and Next Generation 9-
1-1 systems can connect seamlessly so first responders can
communicate and share information in real time.
To the panel, could you speak about the importance of
interoperability in public safety communications? What steps
should we consider to make sure these systems do work
seamlessly across jurisdictions and in our technologies? Start
with Mr. Newton.
Mr. Newton. Thank you. I think, first and foremost, the
continued funding for the statewide interoperability
coordinators that are located in each State, those individuals
really guide the process of--you know, the technology may be
there, but then where are the processes? What are the policies
and plans?
Mrs. Houchin. Sheriff?
Sheriff Dicus. Communication and technology is what we are
focused on, obviously, today. But it is also the
interoperability and knowing who your partners are across those
lines prior to settling some of these governance decisions as
it relates to technology. But, more importantly, knowing each
other before the incident happens and you are shaking hands for
the first time in the street.
Mrs. Houchin. Thank you.
Dr. Fontes. Interoperability, it is essential it be a key
component to Next Generation 9-1-1. Currently, if I am typing
in or entering data into a CAD system and I have to transfer
that to another 9-1-1 center, the 9-1-1 center may have to
reenter all of that information. In the Next Generation 9-1-1
environment, you will be able to push that data and information
out to as many PSAPs would be appropriate for the response of
the emergency.
Mrs. Houchin. Thank you.
Mr. Wright. You know, I have learned a lot working with
public safety agencies and emergency managers in Florida and
South Carolina the last 10 years. Not coming from emergency
management, I have learned a great deal about how critically
important this interoperability is. For them to have access to
that information is critically important. They can then make
the proper decisions regarding alerting and advising the
public. That is where the public broadcasting infrastructure
comes into play, that final mile. And that is why supporting
that infrastructure is so critically important for the future.
Mrs. Houchin. I guess a followup question for you, Mr.
Wright, would be what--what part, if any, does AM radio play in
that overall discussion?
Mr. Wright. It plays a huge part. You know, it is
interesting. Growing up in the Midwest, as a child, I remember
at night listening to stations like WLS out of Chicago and
KAAY. Well, that AM technology, you know, what is old is new
again when it comes to public safety. It is the most resilient
infrastructure that we have. It is critically important. The AM
Act--critically important for passage to support public safety.
Mrs. Houchin. And, in rural areas, fiber lines and towers
are vulnerable to natural disasters, leaving communities cut
off at the exact time that it could be needed most. Mr. Newton,
how do you see satellite technology shaping the future of
public safety communications?
Mr. Newton. I see satellite technology in two respects, one
being an exigent temporary solution to spot problems that we
have at issue here at this one location, that we use as a
temporary solution. It is also a hardening and redundancy
feature of some of these sites, especially in our most remote
sites. Some of these--in fact, one tower, it was 6 miles of
debris to get to a tower. It is not practical to get to that
during a disaster.
Mrs. Houchin. Thank you again for our witnesses and for
your testimony. This hearing underscores how vital it is that
our first responders have communications they can rely on,
whether it is in rural counties in Indiana or urban centers
across the country. Lives depend on these systems, and the
systems must be resilient, interoperable, and secure.
I look forward to continuing the work on this issue, and I
thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Landsman, for
5 minutes.
Mr. Landsman. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for
being here.
I want to talk about, sort of, the infrastructure that we
need to invest in. And so I am just--I am curious what you all
would say, moving forward, has to be our top priorities.
Obviously, I want to get your thoughts on the public
broadcasting piece and what should happen; moving forward, what
you think needs to--this Congress needs to do.
And it is not a leading question. I am curious as to what
the answer is. What could some of the bipartisan solutions be?
And then whether it is Next Gen 9-1-1 or the other pieces, what
are--if you were to make a list of the things that the United
States Congress should be investing in, collectively, so that
the system has what it needs, the next iteration, the next
generation, so that we are keeping everybody safe?
I am from Cincinnati. I represent both Hamilton County and
Warren County in southwest Ohio and was at City Hall for a long
time. And so I am deeply familiar with the importance of our
emergency communication centers and what happens when things
don't work out the way they are supposed to. Lives are lost,
and it decimates a community.
And so, obviously, we want to constantly be getting better,
from how quickly we pick up the call to how quickly we get a
first responder out there, and, in the case of a mass event,
how quickly we do everything.
So I am going to stop and just ask--and starting with Mr.
Wright, can you talk a little bit about the public broadcast--
you have a lot, but if you had to pick, you know, your top two
or three things that Congress should do moving forward, what
would those be? And then what are the other capacity
investments that need to be made?
Mr. Wright. You know, I--thank you for your question.
I think the first thing is to wrestle back control of the
Next Generation Warning System grant money. That is truly a
bipartisan solution that for the last 3 to 4 years Congress has
fully funded. And so we would hope that the funding would
continue for that. But then move to deploy those funds into our
public broadcasting infrastructure as quickly as possible.
Mr. Landsman. Yes.
Mr. Wright. We have recently heard that a public
broadcaster in Fairbanks, Alaska, now turns their transmitter
off overnight from midnight to 6 a.m.--
Mr. Landsman. To save money?
Mr. Wright. To save money. And that is rescission related.
But there are also issues related to the Next Generation
Warning System for infrastructure support, and I can speak to
it personally. We just put through an STA with the FCC to
operate our full-power television transmitter at half power
because it is out of date. It is old. We can't get parts for it
any longer. We have two grant proposals in the NGWS warning
system proposal system, and they remain unacted on.
Mr. Landsman. OK.
Mr. Wright. So move on NGWS.
Mr. Landsman. Thank you. And I am going to follow up. My
team will send a note, a letter, you know, just to get the ball
rolling and see if there are other members of this committee
that want to work with us. I suspect there will be, because I
do think this is bipartisan.
Yes?
Dr. Fontes. Very simple. Fund Next Generation 9-1-1.
Mr. Landsman. Yes.
Dr. Fontes. When we are talking about our overall public
safety service at large, and particularly where there is
Federal involvement in funding, ensure that the authorities
that are responsible for that are operating correctly
functionally so that we know that the money that is available
is being spent wisely and deploying the systems needed.
Mr. Landsman. Can you just say a word or two about that? I
mean, is that just basic oversight, or is there something
specific----
Dr. Fontes. Yes, yes, yes, I think it is basic oversight in
large part. It is just the fact that, in the case of Next
Generation 9-1-1, there is no 9-1-1 office anymore at the
Federal level.
Mr. Landsman. I got you. OK. That is good to know. Thank
you.
Sheriff Dicus. My comments are along the same line. Still
continue to build out with FirstNet. Anything that is priority-
specific for public safety is something we need to expand upon
so we don't have those commercial interruptions with other
networks. And to make sure--the governance issue that we are
all talking--a lot of you are frustrated about, you know,
partisan issues and things of that nature.
But remember, when the Twin Towers fell, as it relates to
law enforcement, we weren't talking to our Federal, local, and
State partners. We all could have been part of the solution. We
need to make sure that that continues as well so that we solve
these problems and that everybody understands this isn't a red
or blue issue. It is really a commonsense issue for all of the
Americans across the board.
Mr. Landsman. Yes, well said.
Mr. Newton, 10 seconds. Sorry.
Mr. Newton. Ten seconds. Ongoing funding for especially our
land mobile radio systems. The challenge we have--it upgrades,
updates, maintenance, deferred maintenance. Those are ongoing,
constant challenges, and we are not away from those yet.
FirstNet is an adjunct to that.
Mr. Landsman. Thank you all.
I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Excellent questions, Mr. Landsman.
I now recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Goldman, for
your 5 minutes of questions.
Mr. Goldman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much to the entire panel for being here
today. When it comes down to our end of the dais, I apologize
if some of the questions have been asked, for I did have to
step out and take a call. So, if I am repetitive in my
questions, I apologize. But, again, thank you very much for
being here.
I will start with both you, Mr. Newton, and Sheriff. My
staff recently toured a facility where FirstNet portable cell
towers and other network assets are stored and maintained in
Texas. Can you speak to whether your agencies have used
portable cell towers during emergency response or disaster
planning and how they help enhance and address communications
during these events?
Mr. Newton, if you would like to start.
Mr. Newton. As a matter of fact, we--my organization owns
one. We deployed it 2 days ago, and it is in use right now
during a search in a particularly rural area where we have a
large temporary concentration of a lot of public safety. So we
absolutely see the value in it and whether it is a--an
emergency or a disaster.
Mr. Goldman. All right. Thank you.
Sheriff?
Sheriff Dicus. The answer for me is also yes. We mentioned
a lot of--looking at a cell tower as being critical
infrastructure and when they go down, whether it is vandalism,
man-made, or natural disaster, these portable units we can
bring in and still--can continue to communicate.
And, also, when you talk about density of communication,
putting those at our command centers that allows that traffic
to be leveled out is really critical to things going on and
things that we are responding to, almost daily.
Mr. Goldman. All right. Thank you very much.
Dr. Fontes, how critical is the strong broadband connection
utilizing the fullest extent of Next Generation 9-1-1 systems?
Dr. Fontes. Well, unfortunately, Next Generation 9-1-1
systems don't exist nationwide. There are States that are in
various stages of deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1 systems.
Many have deployed what we call ESI nets, or emergency service
internet protocol networks, that allow for the movement of
information. But Next Generation 9-1-1 is so much more than
that. Therefore, the information coming in from the public or
sensors or anything that would come into 9-1-1 is in large
part--if there is any data or information associated with
that--would be dummied down in large part for voice
communication.
Now, there are situations where some centers are capable of
receiving data that would enable our field responders to
respond more effectively. It is imperative--imperative--that we
have Next Generation 9-1-1 deployed so that the broadband
capability from the consumer, the person dialing 9-1-1, goes to
a broadband Next Generation 9-1-1 system into an IP base
broadband public safety communications network.
We have to make sure that all the links in the full chain
of command of public safety are current in technology. Thank
you.
Mr. Goldman. All right. Thank you very much.
And my final question--I will go back to you, Sheriff. My
district is home to both large urban areas and rural
communities. You noted in your testimony that smaller agencies
often rely on larger counties for emergency communication
infrastructure. What Federal steps would help ensure that Next
Generation 9-1-1 deployment doesn't leave behind rural areas?
Sheriff Dicus. So it is twofold. Obviously, we have talked
about funding the majority of the morning, but also having
Federal-level cybersecurity audits and practices that are
really DoD level, in my mind, to be able to protect those small
agencies that can't afford it. In other words, if they are
riding on a sheriff's backbone in some of those agencies, that
we make sure that backbone is continually secured to the latest
and greatest standards.
Mr. Goldman. Thank you all again. That is the end of my
questioning.
Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I appreciate the time. I
yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentlelady from Virginia, Ms.
McClellan, for 5 minutes for your questions.
Ms. McClellan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I appreciate the opportunity to discuss our Nation's
critical public safety communications networks at a time when
natural disasters and public emergencies are becoming more
commonplace.
And, as we have heard, communities rely on these systems
not only in moments of crisis but for the trust and confidence
that come from knowing that help is on the way. And, as we
confront more school shootings, hurricanes, and other
emergencies, ensuring that our first responders have reliable,
interoperable, and modern communication tools isn't a luxury,
it is a necessity. And it is critically important that no
community gets left behind in the transition to these tools. It
could be the difference between life and death.
And yet the latest data available shows that many
communities, particularly rural ones, are in fact left behind
today. In only seven States or territories have all PSAPs fully
transitioned to Next Gen 9-1-1. Four States and territories
remain in the legacy stage, meaning no PSAP has transitioned.
And many of these legacy systems still rely on copper, which is
over a century old. The rest of the States and territories are
in various states of transition.
So for each of the witnesses--and I think I know the
answer--do you think Congress should prioritize ensuring that
all roughly 5,700 primary and secondary public safety answering
points should transition to Next Generation 9-1-1?
Mr. Newton. Yes.
Sheriff Dicus. Yes.
Dr. Fontes. Yes, absolutely.
Mr. Wright. Yes.
And I would also add very quickly that the University of
Florida has been proactive in terms of creating products that
address the very issue you were talking about with rural and
underserved areas. We have deployed a new BEACON alerting
channel that is dedicated to four rural counties, and it is
proving to be very successful.
Ms. McClellan. Good. Thank you.
And this hearing has made clear that funding is the primary
challenge for PSAPs making this transition. I think it is
important to level set because it is not in the record yet that
local governments are the ones that primarily own and operate
these PSAPs and pay for their establishment, their operation,
their maintenance, and their transition, primarily through
general funds and, in many cases, local or State-imposed
surcharges. And, unfortunately, our localities, as we have
heard, just don't have the funding to make these upgrades.
This year, the House majority had several chances to stand
with rural communities and improve our communications
infrastructure, but they didn't. They could have used spectrum
auction proceeds to fund Next Gen 9-1-1, but they didn't. They
could have pushed back on the administration's delays in
broadband deployment, which is necessary to close the digital
divide so that more people can see the benefits of Next Gen 9-
1-1, but they didn't. They could have opposed cuts to the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which administers the Next
Generation Warning System grant programs, but they didn't.
For all of the witnesses, do you agree that these issues
are all interconnected and that, without them, rural
communities will be left behind?
Mr. Newton. Yes.
Sheriff Dicus. Yes. We are talking about a number of things
here this morning, but even legacy systems remaining,
modernizing a number of things, and it really is an all-in
approach.
Ms. McClellan. Yes.
Dr. Fontes. Yes.
Mr. Wright. Yes.
Ms. McClellan. And, while Congress last estimated that the
cost to transition all PSAPs to Next Gen 9-1-1 in 2018, I think
we all agree that the costs have likely gone up in the last 7
years, at a minimum through inflation and the cost of labor.
But tariffs are also having an impact on the cost as they--and
raising supply chain issues for copper, for those PSAPs that
are still on legacy systems, for fiber optic components, PVCs,
and other installation materials.
And I don't have enough time, maybe, for a full answer, but
Sheriff Dicus, I want to elaborate a little bit. You touched on
the critical role that Next Gen 9-1-1 could play in response to
school shootings. Can you elaborate a little more specifically
on how important it is to save lives in that situation?
Sheriff Dicus. Sure. So what I am talking to is primarily
intelligence, both things that are going on at the school prior
to the event even happening, and when you are talking about a
real-time crime center or some of these technological advances
we are talking about, is being able to feed that first
responder what is the picture they are dealing with, what was
before, who showed up, and what is going on.
Ms. McClellan. And, specifically, they need to see video.
Sheriff Dicus. Video certainly helps. And sometimes it is
the video that the 9-1-1 dispatcher is receiving or a real-time
crime center that is being translated what is being seen to the
person that is trying to drive to get there.
Ms. McClellan. But it is more than just a voice on the
phone explaining what is happening.
Sheriff Dicus. Yes, absolutely. We live in a modern age
where pictures, video, and a number of things we are all
operating on--frankly, used to operating on with our cell
phones, and first responders are no different. The more
information, the better.
Ms. McClellan. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Dunn, for
your 5 minutes of questions.
Mr. Dunn. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
to the first responders who volunteered your time to be here
with us today. Your service is greatly appreciated.
This is the first in a series of hearings we will be doing
on emergency communications this year. Programs like the First
Responder Network, FirstNet, and Next Gen 9-1-1 are essential
in Florida.
My district, Florida's Second Congressional District, makes
up most of the panhandle, and we are no strangers to preparing
and responding to natural disasters. Additionally, my district
is home to some of the most frequented beaches, which requires
emergency responders to lead in protocols, preparation,
response, resources, for all kinds of emergencies.
In 2018, Hurricane Michael made landfall in my district as
a cat 5, and it destroyed everything in its path, and we are
still rebuilding 7 years later.
And then we had Hurricanes Ian, Idalia, and most recently
Helene. All made landfall in our district. So the unfortunate
truth is that, you know, our--during Hurricane Michael, our
sheriff's department--everybody in our county--everybody in 12
counties lost all communications. Cell phones, land lines, even
police repeaters went down.
So the Bay County Sheriff's Office had to make a critical
decision to switch to FirstNet right after the storm, and
fortunately they were connected almost immediately. However,
witnesses here have mentioned that different areas have
different coverage capabilities, and interoperability is still
very essential.
So, while some sheriff's offices are using FirstNet or
AT&T, others are using Verizon, other carriers. On the other
hand, the Next Gen 9-1-1 program has helped streamline our tech
advantages for our call centers. And thanks to these programs,
as we have talked about, we have had--now we have video and
text capability--not just text but video capabilities as well.
Sheriff Dicus, you recounted that, as a result of
California's opt-in to FirstNet, San Bernardino received five
new FirstNet tower sites. We have had similar accounts in
Florida. As we look at reauthorizing the FirstNet program, can
you explain your thoughts on the importance of the creation of
FirstNet after the 9/11 terrorist attacks? And do you believe
that the program was a necessary catalyst for building the
emergency networks around the country?
Sheriff Dicus. So I will work your question backward, but
absolutely. When we talk about interoperability--and it is an
opportunity to build out--no matter the buildout that we have
already discussed, where FirstNet is at this point, there's
still vulnerabilities, and there's still gaps. We have a voice
at the table. And where do we start filling in those gaps to be
able to take care of the public?
Mr. Dunn. Can you enumerate a few of those gaps?
Sheriff Dicus. Sure. In my area, some of these things--even
Federal land--Mount Baldy is a popular hiking area. And, as
part of FirstNet, we were actually able to get a cell tower
there for all the hikers that are coming from the Los Angeles
space and being able to use that cell tower for emergency
purposes. And, as the sheriff, I am mandated to do search and
rescue responsibilities in the State of California. So that is
the only way in which I can get to them rather than using the
traditional ground-pounders where somebody realized somebody
didn't return home. It is more immediate.
Mr. Dunn. I have to tell you, the sheriffs were--in my
district are--I have 16 of them. They are outstanding.
Sir, as a user of FirstNet, have you had interactions or
conversations regarding the program or oversight of the
programs from anyone from NTIA, National Telecommunications and
Information Administration, that oversees this program? And
what from these conversations are you at liberty to share for
our purposes as a fact-finding oversight organization?
Sheriff Dicus. That is for me or----
Mr. Dunn. Yes, for you, Sheriff.
Sheriff Dicus. So, in terms of my staff that works with
those folks as they roll this out and the governing agencies,
we have had nothing but positive contacts other than there is
so much more needed to be able to fill the gaps that we talked
about earlier.
Mr. Dunn. So we would love to help you fill those gaps.
Please communicate with us.
I have a number of other questions for other members of the
panel, and obviously my time is expiring. But this is a
fascinating discussion. It is important. And it is certainly
close to our hearts in Florida, where we experience a lot of
natural disasters.
Thank you, gentlemen, all for attending today. Mr. Chair, I
yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentlelady from Florida, Ms. Castor,
for 5 minutes to ask your questions.
Ms. Castor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for calling
this hearing. And thank you to all of the witnesses and all of
the first responders who are there every single day to keep us
safe, safe and well.
And, for Mr. Wright, I am sorry that--I have learned a lot
about your commitment to the Florida Public Radio Emergency
Network and BEACON. But I have also learned today before we
came into the hearing room that you are the voice of Florida
Gator football. You are the PA announcer. And I am really sorry
that Congressman Bilirakis and Congresswoman Cammack are not
here to hear me say, ``Go Bulls,'' because that was an
extraordinary event. I am sure there was some emergency Gator
signal sent up for that loss on Saturday.
Mr. Wright. I clearly understood earlier how to turn my mic
on and off. But I--but thank you, Congresswoman. I appreciate
your sentiment.
Ms. Castor. Yes.
But here we are. We are about to come into the 1-year
anniversary of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. And, in my neck of
the woods in the Tampa Bay area, that was the worst catastrophe
we have experienced in anyone's memory. During that time, after
Helene, 1.3 million people lost power, and then Milton was
right on its heels where over 3.4 million Floridians lost
power. And it is giving me some flashbacks because what--what
happened also was we couldn't get oil tankers in. So there was
no fuel. We had police guarding gas stations. So people didn't
have power, they didn't have gas, they didn't have internet. So
what they relied on is just what you said: the over--over-the-
air broadcast radio.
And I remember very well digging out my old Walkman with
batteries, and I could listen to all of the updates: the
bridges that were open, the ones that were closed, food
distribution. And that helped me as a public servant to get
that important information out to my neighbors.
So I am so grateful for what has happened over time in
building that network. It is not easy. But it really is a
model. It can't--you know, your phone--you are not going to be
able to charge your phone in a catastrophe like that. So the
satellite networks are important. Everyone has said we need
redundant systems. But I found, in the immediate aftermath of a
catastrophe, with no power and no internet, it is the public
radio network.
So what are the lessons for other communities? Because you
have worked with our Florida Department of Emergency Management
for years to develop that network. What are the--what are the
lessons learned that you can share with the rest of the country
on building those networks out?
Mr. Wright. Well, I think, you know, one of the best
lessons that we have learned in Florida is that we are better
together than we are separate. And what I mean by that is that
we have an infrastructure in place through the broadcast
infrastructure with public stations around the entire Nation.
And so the Florida model that we have deployed into South
Carolina as well through our partnership with South Carolina
ETV and public radio, same exact model. Very efficient. In
fact, one of the recognitions that I am most proud of is a
Florida TaxWatch award for productivity and efficiency--
Ms. Castor. Wait. They are a very, very, very conservative
group in Florida.
Mr. Wright. I appreciate you recognizing that. That is why
that award is center in my office, because it speaks volumes
about the work that we are doing and the importance of that
work.
And I think that we are uniquely positioned at this moment
in time to take advantage of that infrastructure, to reinvest
in it, to ensure that when the next hurricane comes in or the
next wildfire event happens, that that communications
infrastructure for the last mile is there, and then that we are
utilizing innovation solutions like FPREN and BEACON to get
those alerts out to the public when they need them most.
Yes, enhanced 9-1-1, critically important. But the work
from those agencies out to the public, that is just as
important. That is another piece of the chain that we cannot
forget.
Ms. Castor. It is all that coordination, because in a
catastrophe and emergencies they are locally managed, State
coordinated, and federally supported. And it seems like what we
are missing right now is the Federal supportive piece of it, to
take a hatchet to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that
puts those grants at risk for the infrastructure we need, the
Federal grants, not to mention all of the resiliency grants,
all of the attacks on Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA
needs reform, but it can't be eliminated. We would be--everyone
would be in dire straits.
Mr. Wright. We have a proven model. In public broadcasting,
we have made the investments in the past. We need to continue
making those. And I think it was Tip O'Neill who used to say
that all politics is local. All alerting is local. And that is
where the public broadcasters come in to play.
Ms. Castor. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Fry,
for 5 minutes to ask your questions.
Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for having this
very important and vital hearing today.
Thank you to our witnesses for your candid and accurate
testimony.
Public safety is critically important to me, especially as
a Representative of a coastal district in South Carolina. For
us, storms like hurricanes are not if but when. And when
disaster strikes, communication is not just important, it is
lifesaving. In August, I had the privilege of visiting the
Marion County Sheriff's Office in my district to learn
firsthand about the role that programs like FirstNet play in
supporting our first responders. And what I saw was
encouraging. But I think it underscores how critically reliable
communications are so important when disaster hits.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter to our first
responders--it doesn't matter to our first responders who is
providing them with the service but if the service is being
provided. Emergencies can happen in an instant, and it is our
duty in Congress to make sure and to--that those who are on the
ground have the necessary tools they need to do their jobs
effectively, securely, and without delay.
Sheriff, we will start with you. As you know, FirstNet was
established by Congress to give our first responders a
dedicated nationwide broadband network. AT&T currently operates
under that authority.
At the same time, providers like Verizon and T-Mobile are
doing their own thing, offering public safety services. So,
from your experience on the ground, how do you see these
different offerings working together in practice? And what
steps should Congress consider to ensure that the focus stays
on the reliability and interoperability for our first
responders?
Sheriff Dicus. So, to your question, we are an agency that
is an example of exactly what you are asking. Our county is so
vast, we can't just rely just on FirstNet because of cell tower
coverage in other places, so our computers automatically do a
strength test, essentially, that is constantly happening while
a sheriff's deputy drives around. And whichever service
provider is the strongest signal, that is the one the computer
automatically goes with.
So they are working together in those aspects. I think what
we are talking about is really reliability when we need it, and
we are talking about the amount of traffic during an emergency
that may go over one of those systems where FirstNet is
exclusive to public safety. And that is certainly why we would
like to see the buildout continue.
Mr. Fry. Thank you for that.
You have also highlighted both the successes and challenges
with FirstNet's rollout, including the reinvestment of funds
into new infrastructure, but also the risks from outages,
vandalism, and cyber attacks. Looking ahead, what steps should
Congress prioritize to ensure reliability and resiliency in
these networks, particularly as FirstNet authority approaches
its 2027 sunset date?
Sheriff Dicus. Certainly start looking at particularly
FirstNet towers and those that are specific to public safety as
critical infrastructure. So, in other words, there are security
aspects, maybe even the way they are designed and built. We
have had a lot of talk this morning about copper and getting
cut, for instance. Fiber is no different. And, actually, in
some cases I think it is harder to repair fiber. At least that
has been our experience. So physical security and then
cybersecurity are number-one priorities. And, if we can use the
Federal Government's help to do that, I think we are in the
right place.
Mr. Fry. Thank you for that.
We frequently discuss AI and its potential impact on this
committee. Emergency communications are no different. AI will
change the game. Dr. Fontes, you also note that Next Generation
9-1-1 will allow Americans to send texts, images, videos, and
other forms of data directly to call centers, data that could
be enhanced or triaged through AI tools.
How do you see AI shaping the effectiveness of Next
Generation 9-1-1 in practice? And what safeguards should
Congress consider to ensure that this technology strengthens
rather than complicates the emergency response system?
Dr. Fontes. Thank you for your question.
AI is beginning to enter into the 9-1-1 space. In the Next
Generation 9-1-1 environment, when data are allowed to come in
to 9-1-1 centers, videos, et cetera, the use of AI, as I would
envision it, would allow us to either have supporting tools
that may hear or see something that the human ear or eye cannot
see or hear. And so, therefore, it may provide more correct
situational issues, enabling the field responders to know what
they are going into when they respond to that emergency.
I think there is also a variety of opportunities dealing
with language translations, transcripts, record maintenance,
and the backroom aspects of Next Generation or 9-1-1 systems at
large. But you need that Next Generation 9-1-1 system to have
that data flow into the 9-1-1 centers.
So that is one of the fundamental aspects I believe is
critical to the use of advanced technologies like AI in serving
the best possible 9-1-1 service to the public.
Mr. Fry. Thank you for that.
Mr. Chairman, I see my time has expired, and I yield back.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentlelady from California, Ms.
Barragan, for 5 minutes to ask your questions.
Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First, Sheriff, I want to take a moment to thank you for
your statement and for your position and following the law in
California, and for your statement of how it is so important
that, when you protect the community, you protect everybody
regardless of immigration status. So I know you--you took some
heat for that, and I appreciate that you are looking through
the lens of protecting everybody and that you do not ask about
status or require proof of citizenship to file a report or to
make a call. When somebody sees a crime, we want them to call
9-1-1. We want them to report it and to work with you. So I
want to start by thanking you for that.
Sheriff, I also want to ask you, do you think that there is
a benefit to funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting?
Sheriff Dicus. I think this is an all-hands approach. And,
if you heard my testimony today, if these systems are redundant
to each other, whether it is the AM radio system, we never
know--we don't have the benefit of knowing in any disaster what
is actually going to happen, and the fact we would have
redundancies with all those systems--I am telling you, public
safety--if we have to get the can and string out, we are going
to do it to protect the public.
Ms. Barragan. OK. But it is a simple question: Do you think
there is a benefit at all to funding it?
Sheriff Dicus. I do think there is a benefit to funding it
because it may be the only resource that we can communicate
over should everything else go down.
Ms. Barragan. Great. Yes. I also noticed that you were a
guest on the ``Inland Edition,'' which is PBS, to talk about
law enforcement for community members. I am assuming there is a
positive benefit to the community for you going on and doing
that show?
Sheriff Dicus. Particularly as it relates to the economic
engine in my county and how it works and to be able to take law
enforcement executives to understand that and know how to
protect it.
Ms. Barragan. Thank you.
Because we know that, when disaster strikes, every second
counts. And, right now, our emergency communication systems are
at risk of failing. And the Next Generation Warning System is
central to keeping communities safe.
Sheriff, if you had $88 billion, would you spend some of
that money to invest in Next Gen 9-1-1?
Sheriff Dicus. Absolutely.
Ms. Barragan. That is the answer I hope every Republican
would have had. But you know what? They didn't do it. When they
passed their so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which is a big ugly
bill, they really abandoned a bipartisan agreement to invest in
programs like Next Gen 9-1-1 as a result of money raised from a
spectrum auction. And that is why you are hearing so much about
it today, because there is an opportunity--there is $88 billion
going to be raised from this auction. And House Republicans are
refusing to put money from those proceeds into things like
this, which, as we have heard today, is lifesaving.
It is so critical, and it is so necessary--just like when
every House Republican voted against the American Rescue Plan,
something else you and San Bernardino County have benefited
from. I have seen the Valley Communications Center in San
Bernardino recently opened up, and you praised it as something
that is going to help benefit public safety and response time.
So thank you for taking positions and making sure you are
putting safety first.
We know that the rescissions at the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting have put in jeopardy the mission of these grant
programs to help local broadcasters serve as lifelines during
emergencies. Right now, in Louisiana, a station can't replace
an aging transmitter, which has put emergency alerts at risk in
a hurricane-prone area. In Montana, a rural station faces
failing equipment and likely loss of service, leaving remote
communications without reliable alerts. In central Florida, a
station has been forced to postpone critical equipment upgrades
and is down to a single engineer, jeopardizing emergency
broadcast in another hurricane-prone region. Without Next Gen,
outdated equipment leaves communities blind to disaster, and
this is unacceptable.
Mr. Wright, with CBP no longer administering the Next Gen--
or the NGWS grants, what happens to rural and underserved
communities if FEMA fails to ensure that program funding
reaches local broadcasters?
Mr. Wright. They suffer.
Ms. Barragan. What does----
Mr. Wright. They will not receive the alerting that they
desperately need.
Ms. Barragan. And what does that mean for communities?
Mr. Wright. It degradates the culture within that
community. It puts the citizens of that community in peril. And
that is what the public broadcasters across the United States
are trying to solve to, through the various projects that we
work on like FPREN and BEACON. But the funding support for the
infrastructure is absolutely critical.
Ms. Barragan. Great. Thank you.
This is why I worked with Congressman Menendez and McClain
Delaney to a letter to FEMA, which we sent this morning, urging
the agency to share a clear plan to maintain the NGWS funding
for local broadcasters and ensure continuity of service to
rural underserved communities.
And, with that, I thank all the witnesses. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Kean [presiding]. Thank you.
The gentlewoman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida for 5
minutes.
Mrs. Cammack. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today.
Mr. Wright, it is good to see you. Go Gators. I am
disappointed, no orange and blue tie. Dr. Fontes is repping for
you, though.
Mr. Wright. It is blue. The doctor and I, you know, we
coordinated today for you.
Mrs. Cammack. I appreciate that, even though I know we had
a little bit of a rough weekend, and I heard our--my colleague,
Representative Castor, was giving us a bit of grief, but we are
Gators so----
Mr. Wright. But we appreciate her sensitivity to the Gator
Nation.
Mrs. Cammack. That is right. That is right.
But I also want to acknowledge all our first responders in
the room. Thank you all so much for your service and for your
families' service. As the wife of a firefighter, SWAT medic, I
know firsthand what it is like, and so deeply grateful for
everything that y'all do.
I am also disappointed in some of the very divisive and
partisan language that I just heard from my colleague on the
other side of the aisle. Emergency communications, it is not a
Republican or a Democrat issue. It is an American issue. And so
I am just a little disappointed that it has to turn into a food
fight.
But we are here because we have a real issue that we have
to solve. We need to figure out a way to update our systems.
And, as a Floridian, I have seen time and time again how vital
our reliable communications are during a disaster and truly how
scary it can be when they go down. So, whether it is a
hurricane knocking on our door that is taking out our power and
cell sites, or Federal and local responders struggling to
operate on the same systems, these gaps can really mean the
difference between life or death. Certainly, as someone who
represents a district that saw three major hurricanes in the
span of 13 months, we know this firsthand.
Of course, Florida faces unique challenges. From protecting
our seniors in rural communities to keeping millions of our
visitors safe every year, this conversation on strengthening
public safety communications, whether it is 9-1-1 systems,
FirstNet, or other tools, it is critical.
So, having worked those storms, I can say confidently that
we need to take an above-all approach when it comes to building
out the systems, updating them, and building in redundancies.
I am so excited for today's conversation because it is
something that is long overdue. We need a system that is
resilient, interoperable, and secure when it comes to the
issues in communications that matter most.
So I am going to start with you, Sheriff. One of the
promises that Next Gen 9-1-1 has is the ability to transmit
texts, images, video, and location data directly to first
responders in the field. I can't tell you how many times my
husband has been on one system, and he is a city, you know--he
works for the city--but then the county is operating on a
different system, and maybe there is a mutual aid call coming
in from a neighboring county. Some are on FLURS, some are on a
different bandwidth. It is tough. And I can tell you firsthand
some of the challenges that we have seen with FirstNet in our
rural communities.
So what steps can Congress take to ensure nationwide
interoperability amongst all of the different networks that our
first responders operate on so that they can move seamlessly
amongst jurisdictions, especially during large-scale disasters?
Sheriff Dicus. Well, your example with your husband is very
pertinent to this when you are talking about even between fire,
sheriff's departments, and police departments. So
interoperability by having that common platform, FirstNet, or
broadband just for public safety, is first and foremost.
A lot of the modern technologies, both in our handheld
radios as well as when we use our cell phones to talk to each
other, have the ability to automatically recognize
jurisdictional boundaries and then make those connections. Some
of it can be done in our dispatch centers. There is technology
that allows two disparate radio systems to be plugged in, and
now they can turn around and communicate with each other.
I think ensuring simple, straightforward technologies like
that and providing really the governance and policy language
from the Federal level across the board will allow us to
standardize to make sure that we continue to move in the
direction you are describing.
Mrs. Cammack. I love that. I love that, especially since
these are very expensive systems. You know, you have got people
investing millions and millions of dollars to upgrade their
system only to find that they can't communicate just even a few
counties over. So that is really important.
And then my next question is going to be on FirstNet. So
the FirstNet authority recently held a workshop in our district
to solicit feedback on the priorities from our first
responders. In the most recent storm, the minute I got out of
my home county, Alachua County, heading west towards the
hurricane where it had hit the hardest, my husband immediately
lost coverage. I don't have FirstNet, and I didn't have
coverage. So this is something that I brought to their
attention.
Now, I understand that these individuals are best
positioned to help guide infrastructure needs in our
communities, but how has your experience been in getting the
infrastructure placed where you need it in an emergency
situation as it relates to FirstNet?
Sheriff Dicus. In terms of the portability of, like,
FirstNet mobile towers and things like that, it is good. They
respond. However, what you are talking about is the physical
tower itself going down, and that is what your husband
experienced.
Mrs. Cammack. Right.
Sheriff Dicus. Number one, construction standards, making
these things resilient. Also calling it is what it is--critical
infrastructure across the United States--securing it,
maintaining it, and monitoring it.
Mrs. Cammack. And I know I am over my time, but at some
point I would like to get on the record some commentary on
redundancies and moving away from singular prime towers. I
think that that is a disaster in the making. So I will follow
up with all of you. But thank you again for each of you being
here today. I appreciate you. And go Gators.
Mr. Kean. The gentlewoman from Florida yields back.
The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr.
Obernolte.
Mr. Obernolte. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I would
like to thank the committee chairman for holding this hearing
on what I consider to be a critically important topic.
Sheriff Dicus, welcome back to Washington, DC. San
Bernardino County is the largest part of my district, and you
have been a great leader for our county and our law enforcement
agencies. So thanks for your continued presence and your voice
here.
I wanted to ask you about one of the major challenges that
we always have in districts like mine, where 78 percent of the
land is federally managed, and that creates real challenges
when we need to quickly deploy temporary communications
infrastructure and response to an emergency or when we are
trying to deploy more permanent communications infrastructure
to prepare for emergencies.
So can you talk about any obstacles that you have faced in
trying to get deployable equipment on federally managed land or
trying to build permanent infrastructure on federally managed
land?
Sheriff Dicus. Governance and real estate, two of the
biggest things when we are talking about communications and
expanding across. But in a lot of instances, maybe the U.S.
Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management may have
repeaters to use on their own radio systems. Common sense would
be sharing those towers and really that infrastructure to be
able to continue--whether it is a FirstNet system or a county-
operated 800 megahertz system. We have experienced barriers,
and it is usually bureaucracy are those barriers.
If we can actually put the people who are in charge of
those systems and understand that we need to back each other
up--and I know you are familiar with this, but in our Barstow
area, it is a 5,000-square-mile beat for one deputy. Their
backup is a BLM Ranger or a CHB officer on the freeway, and we
all have to be able to interoperate. But if it is bureaucracy,
we need to fix that. We need to make it straight through. And
there are some commonsense approaches. Communication is
communication.
Mr. Obernolte. Right. Well, that is why we are all here
having this discussion.
I also was very interested in your testimony about the need
to establish cybersecurity standards. And I know that the San
Bernardino County Sheriff's Department had a cybersecurity
incident several years ago. Can you talk a little bit about
that incident, the way it affected your capabilities, and how
cybersecurity standards like the ones you are advocating for
would have helped?
Sheriff Dicus. That ransomware attack probably was--in my
entire career, and I have been doing this for almost 35 years
now--affected the brand of the San Bernardino Sheriff's
Department in the way we deliver customer service, which we
take great pride in doing it. We also had to rely on a number
of our other agencies that weren't affected by this.
And you have to understand--let me see if I can put
everybody as quickly as possible into the driver seat of what
the sheriff has. You have an insurance company that comes in
that becomes the quarterback of this, but yet as the sheriff
you are going after the threat actors who did this to you. You
want to go out and make arrests and do those types of things.
Internationally, that is an impossible issue for a sheriff. But
then you call in your three-letter agencies that come in and
support you on that, but yet you also have the responsibility
to get back the data on behalf of your constituents, both the
victims, the suspects, and your employees. It puts you in this
untenable situation.
In order to prevent that, we need to have the best
standards, DoD-type standards, to secure our information. There
is a lot of basics in how you operate this. But as threat
actors become more sophisticated, we need to be on the cutting
edge of that to protect ourselves.
Mr. Obernolte. Thank you, Sheriff Dicus. It is great to see
you again.
Dr. Fontes, I found your testimony very compelling on the
need for Next Generation 9-1-1. And I think everyone here on
the dais would completely agree that this is something that we
have to get across the finish line.
As part of your testimony, you were discussing the need to
stop continually coming up with cost estimates and actually
move into implementation. But from our point of view, part of
the problem is that the latest cost estimate--I think you cited
in your testimony--is, adjusted for inflation, $15 billion.
So my question is, you know, as a technologist myself,
these call centers, they already have computers, they already
have communications. From my standpoint, Next Gen 9-1-1 is just
software. It is software on the consumer side, maybe with the
cell phone operators, and it is software on the call center
side.
How on Earth does it cost $15 billion? I mean, where does
that money go if it is just software that we are talking about?
Dr. Fontes. Oh, thank you. I appreciate your question.
I would contend that it isn't just software. Many of our 9-
1-1 centers don't even have broadband capabilities. So there is
that connectivity issue that has to take place. There also has
to be the technology in the centers to enable the utilization
of data and information coming in. And a lot of these centers
don't have that type of technology that would enable what I
call information-rich or data-rich 9-1-1 calls.
So if it were just a computer solution, it would have been
there a long time ago. It is far more than that. It is
planning, it is coordination at State level, it is backroom
management of information and data and files and records, and
the list goes on.
You know, hopefully, you will have an opportunity to, if
you haven't already been to a--go to a 9-1-1 center and see
what it is that is going on there and to ask them how this
project that they are engaged in is different than the legacy
9-1-1 systems we have today.
Mr. Obernolte. Sure. No, I have done that, and I have asked
that.
Dr. Fontes. Yes.
Mr. Obernolte. And the centers that I went in had broadband
and had computers. So, you know, as a software guy myself, this
seems like a software problem. It sure seems like we should be
able to solve it for less than $15 billion. But I welcome the
continued discussion.
I see we are out of time.
Dr. Fontes. Welcome that.
Mr. Obernolte. I yield back.
Mr. Joyce [presiding]. The gentleman yields.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr.
Kean, for his 5 minutes of questioning.
Mr. Kean. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to all of
our witnesses for being here today.
As we hold this hearing on public safety communications, we
are only 2 days away from the 24th anniversary of the September
11 attacks. And when those planes hit those towers, the
communications, emergency and otherwise, went down immediately.
New Jersey also, uniquely, is subject to many national
weather phenomena, whether it was Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane
Irene, Ida, and so many others that have hit New Jersey since
2001. So we are uniquely aware as citizens that we need to make
sure that all of our communications are secure, redundant, and
whether they be broadband, whether they be AM radio, whether
they be--any--whatever the next generation of
telecommunications it is, we need to make sure that the
communications between the people who are going into harm's way
to protect our fellow citizens or the communication with the
families at home who are being impacted, small businesses--
well, we need to make sure that they have information quickly,
and accurate information as well.
And as we are looking about how we evaluate and update
these emergency communications and public safety
communications, we need to make sure that the authorities are
dynamic and responsive, and we need to make sure that the needs
of the first responders are central to these missions.
One of the primary concerns I hear from first responders in
my district is about the importance of interoperability. And
having been a volunteer firefighter and an EMT myself, I--which
I suspect if you polled the room of firefighters, police
officers, and emergency medical professionals as well, that
they would want to make sure that there is a product that is
reliable, that fits the budget, and is compatible with the
equipment that they may already have.
So, Sheriff Dicus, as we continue to improve our public
safety communications, what can we do to make sure that we are
keeping our primary focus on the needs of the first responders
who are already having to do more with less?
Sheriff Dicus. So we are talking about basic communication,
and I like how you started with what happened on September 11.
Out of a lot of those studies, those local, State, and Federal
were not communicating. So that is talking on a face-to-face
basis, of course. And now we are talking about that
interoperability question you asked.
So whether we are talking about a legacy system, an 800
megahertz system, there are technologies that, as my colleague
Dr. Fontes has said, IP-based that allow those systems to
communicate with each other, more importantly, automatically so
that the first responder doesn't have to change to a repeater
or something along those lines, and those technologies exist.
Being able to fund those, FirstNet having that common
picture in terms of broadband, those are critical to allow the
folks to do their job really seamlessly without having to think
twice about how to make those connections themselves.
Mr. Kean. Thank you. Thank you for that answer.
Mr. Newton, during the attacks on September 11,
communication networks were either knocked out completely or
they were quickly overloaded, resulting in a complete
communications breakdown. How have priority and preemption
increased your ability to respond to large-scale emergencies
and maintain situational awareness among first responders?
Mr. Newton. Specifically with the features of priority and
preemption--and priority means that we will continue to have
access to these--this advanced data, the streams of video, and
the information that we need to make good decisions, as well as
preemption or ruthless preemption. Whereas, short of it being a
9-1-1 call, our call is more important than whatever else is
going on there. And that is what it allows us to do. It allow
us to make those links. It allows me to call for help and say I
need these resources to come help me manage this incident.
Mr. Kean. Thank you.
And, Sheriff Dicus, in your testimony you mentioned land
mobile radio. Can you discuss how your department uses land
mobile radio, and do you believe that mobile provider services
will replace land mobile radio?
Sheriff Dicus. So as of right now--and this is obviously a
technological argument in public safety circles--you need both,
because you can't depend on one or the other, at least at this
point. Some day, as FirstNet and things advance, we may be able
to rely on them. But right now, in a county the size of San
Bernardino and what many sheriffs deal with with these large
counties, it is a better position to have both.
Mr. Kean. OK. Thank you all for your time, your insights,
and for making the time to be here today.
I yield back.
Mr. Joyce. The gentleman yields.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr.
Mullin, for his 5 minutes of questioning.
Mr. Mullin. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I want to thank all of our witnesses for your
testimony today and for what you do to keep our communities
safe.
Last week, I introduced bipartisan legislation, the
Resilience Emergency Alert Communications and Training Act, or
REACT Act. And I appreciate the support of my colleague Mr.
Weber of Texas by the way of his cosponsorship to make it
bipartisan.
This bill would provide technical and financial assistance
to State, local, and Tribal authorities to conduct end-to-end
testing and community-based exercises of warning systems. It is
a simple idea. We want the Federal Government to support our
local emergency managers so that they are ready to alert the
public when disaster strikes.
Mr. Newton, you have had firsthand experience leading
communities through disasters. In your experience responding to
these disasters, what are the biggest barriers to sending
clear, effective alerts quickly, and what kind of preparation
do local communities need to overcome those challenges?
I know that is a broad question there, but if you could
address that.
Mr. Newton. Thank you. I think the first of these is the
obstacle of the costs. It is the obstacle of the software. What
platform are you going to use to actually activate the system?
Typically, those are not a one-time cost. It is more of a
subscription. So that is the first obstacle.
I think the other challenge we have is we focus so much on
the technology that allows us to do the alerting that we don't
take the time to really focus in on--there is a person that
actually has to ingest information, make a decision, maybe
determine do they have the authorities to make certain
decisions, and then act on those decisions.
I think one of the challenges--I have done this for a long
time, but yet that is one of the more stressful things in my
job is to actually set off an alert and craft a message that is
both relevant and meaningful and actionable. And so at this
point there is actually a resource out of University of Albany,
a dashboard that helps you craft effective messaging. And so I
think that is the challenge. Then I think, in line with what
you are suggesting, we have got to practice. We have got to
train, we have got to practice, and you got to keep practicing.
Mr. Mullin. I appreciate that answer very much, Mr. Newton.
My next question is to Mr. Wright. You have led the
development of emergency alerting systems, including BEACON. As
I understand it, this tool and other third-party commercial
emergency alerting systems often rely on Federal alerting
infrastructure, whether it is IPAWS, EAS, or WEA, or public
broadcasting transmitters and towers.
So, Mr. Wright, I am wondering why so many communities use
third-party alert and warning systems. Could you describe what
gaps remain in public alerting tools and how we can close those
gaps?
Mr. Wright. Thank you for your question, Congressman. It
was actually music to my ears to hear that you are using The
Warn Room resources to help your agency learn how to craft more
effective alerts.
At the University of Florida and through the public
broadcasting infrastructure, our job is to take those alerts
that are coming directly from the agencies at the county,
State, and Federal levels, and then transmit those out to the
public as quickly and as efficiently as possible. That is our
role in the overall alerting ecosphere.
We have developed an extraordinary partnership with the
Florida Division of Emergency Management at the State level,
but then also at the local level with county-level emergency
managers to ensure that they know that they have a trusted
partner in the alerting process and that they can depend on
their local public broadcaster to get their information out
exactly as they have crafted it. That is really the value of
BEACON.
One of them is that it is taking your exact messaging, and
then the AI is translating that exactly as it is put into the
system, and then it is broadcast out on the BEACON system 24/7.
It is truly the first alerting device or channel anywhere in
the world, and it is already proven to be very effective.
Mr. Mullin. Thank you for that. And as I close, I just want
to underscore the points you made earlier in the hearing.
Earlier this year, I co-led a bipartisan appropriations
request to support FEMA's Next Generation Warning System's
program, but the majority and the Trump administration just
rescinded funding for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting,
and as a direct result it can no longer administer those
grants. That decision means emergency alerts won't get to those
who need them most. This is the opposite, in my opinion, of
what we need to be doing.
So I thank you all again for your testimony, for being
here.
And with that, I yield back.
Mr. Joyce. The gentleman yields.
I now yield myself 5 minutes for questioning.
First of all, thanks to the panel for being here today.
Accessibility to emergency response services is critical in
rural communities where connection can sometimes be disrupted
and sometimes outright unavailable. Improved coordination of
emergency responders is essential as public safety
communication services are further developed to address the
needs of these rural communities.
There are more than 2,100 agencies in Pennsylvania, and
that represents thousands of FirstNet connections. This
underscores the need for Congress to reauthorize FirstNet's
authority.
The district that I am honored to represent includes 12
rural counties in Pennsylvania, from the battlefields of
Gettysburg in Adams County to close to the Flight 93 Memorial
in Somerset County. My district has geographical barriers that
create problems for first responders trying to communicate in
times of crisis, as well as constituents trying to access
emergency response services by making a 9-1-1 call.
Sheriff Dicus, you mentioned in your testimony that you and
members of your association serve vast rural territories. Can
you elaborate on communication challenges that these law
enforcement officers and first responders face in these rural
communities?
Sheriff Dicus. Sure. In these rural communities, and I am
talking in excess of like a 3\1/2\-hour drive time, there are
not infrastructure things in the ground where we are talking
about fiber. We are talking about, in some cases, cell towers--
that is how remote these places are. So to be able to
communicate, you develop--or you rely on your legacy system,
which is 800 megahertz system.
In the past--they have since advanced, but in the past, the
law enforcement officer would actually know the boundaries of
that radio system to be able to switch to and from repeaters.
And I am glad to report to you today, now that occurs
automatically. But that ends up being the only reliable
communication source. Having something like FirstNet expanded
would now allow for that redundancy and the use of the
computer, not just the handheld radio.
Mr. Joyce. Sheriff, how can Congress ensure that rural
communities--and yours being very similar to mine--how can we
ensure that first responders have access to the most cutting-
edge communications technology and infrastructure that is
possible?
Previously in this hearing you stated that urban
communities often have more access to the funds than rural
communities have. Would you please explain further?
Sheriff Dicus. A lot of the formulas that are related to
funding across the board, whether you are talking about
Homeland Security grant funding, they are related usually to
population. And, of course, the rural areas are going to suffer
just as a result of their population.
I think we need to take into account critical
infrastructure across the board and really standardize
communication for all. It is important to everybody to be able
to have--to make a 9-1-1 call.
Mr. Joyce. Thank you.
Just 2 months ago in Pennsylvania, we experienced
significant statewide 9-1-1 disruptions. Some callers who
dialed 9-1-1 in an emergency situation experienced that their
calls were not delivered to 9-1-1 operators. According to
Pennsylvania's Emergency Management Agency, the cause of the
outages within the Next Gen 9-1-1 system was a defect in the
operating system. A wireless emergency alert issued to the
public notified the individuals to call their local 9-1-1
center directly or to call the local nonemergency line. In a
true emergency, locating these numbers can waste precious time.
This intermittent outage lasted for several hours.
Dr. Fontes, can you speak on the safeguards in place to
address an outage in the Next Gen 9-1-1 system like the one
that recently occurred in Pennsylvania?
Dr. Fontes. Thank you. I think it is important to recognize
the Next Generation 9-1-1 has built into its purposes the idea
of resiliency. So if the center were to go down, the ability to
move 9-1-1 communications to other centers to be able to
respond to the emergency, with the data that is available to
that community that went down, will better serve the public and
provide the continuance of 9-1-1 service.
Mr. Joyce. I think you have outlined what is so important.
What has been so important to this hearing is the continuance,
the ability to have that overlap to serve 9-1-1 emergencies.
As we work to address connectivity for constituents and for
first responders across the country, it is important that we
prioritize bringing this connection to rural communities. It is
equally as important that we build a functional system that
works to provide emergency response services without failure.
Americans need the reliable connection that they can depend
on in times of medical need and in times of disaster. And this
includes the first responders that we count on each and every
hour of each and every day.
Thank you all for being present today. I yield back.
Seeing that there are no further Members wishing to be
recognized, I would like to thank our witnesses for being here
today.
I ask unanimous consent to insert in the record the
documents included on the staff hearing documents list. Without
objection, this will be the order.
I remind Members that they have 10 business days to submit
questions for the record, and I ask the witnesses to respond to
these questions promptly.
Members should submit their questions by close of business
on Tuesday, September 23.
And without objection, the subcommittee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:35 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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