[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 36 (Thursday, March 10, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S1528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                INTEROPERABLE WIRELESS BROADBAND NETWORK

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, tomorrow is March 11. For most of us, 
this date carries no particular significance. It does, however, reflect 
exactly 6 months before September 11. That date we do remember and will 
not forget. It is 6 months from the anniversary of the worst terrorist 
attack ever and a day that we as a nation can never forget. It is 6 
months from the date we will honor the memory of those whose lives came 
to an end and the way we came together, at least for a short period of 
time, as a nation.
  With that historic date approaching, I think it important that we 
honor the tremendous bravery of all public safety officials. I believe 
this is one of the most important issues facing the country, and it is 
one we can do something about very quickly and reduce the budget 
deficit by doing so.
  Our police, our firefighters, our emergency medical technicians, and 
the countless others who fought that day to keep us safe and who work 
every day to protect us from harm--we have essentially forgotten about 
them.
  The 9/11 Commission specifically said that you have to have a system 
that connected all law enforcement across this Nation in an 
interoperable wireless system. Obviously, therefore, that is a way of 
saying that the best and simplest way to honor them is to give them the 
tools they need to be successful, to be safe, and to do their job in a 
way that does not expose them to needless dangers. Right now, we are 
not doing that.
  Much as in the first gulf war, when the Army and the Navy and the 
Marines and the Air Force could not communicate with each other because 
they were all on different systems of communications--and we all kind 
of laughed at that as being kind of pathetic. They have solved that, 
sort of, but we have not solved this one at all, involving every single 
American and every single firefighter, policeman, and law enforcement 
officer, deputies, sheriffs, all across America. When it comes to 
public safety communications, these everyday heroes do not have the 
networks that they could so easily have and that they so desperately 
need because we have not acted. It is the 10-year anniversary coming up 
6 months from now--we have not acted.
  Too often, first responders lack that interoperable network that is 
essential to providing an effective response in emergencies, all kinds 
of emergencies--a lot of them very desperate, not all of them 
catastrophic, but there is always that potential. They don't have the 
ability to communicate with one another. They don't have the ability to 
communicate with other agencies. They don't have the ability to 
communicate with other cities and States across State lines. They 
cannot do that. It is kind of pathetic in the age of the Internet. We 
have chosen to do nothing. Instructed by the 9/11 Commission to do 
something a long time ago, we have done nothing. This hampers our 
ability to respond to a crisis, this lack of equipment. Whether that 
crisis is a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, it puts lives in 
unnecessary peril.
  I believe it is time to do something about it. In the Commerce 
Committee, we happen to take that approach. That is why I introduced S. 
28, the Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act. This 
legislation does two things. First, it sets aside the 10 megahertz of 
spectrum known as the D-block. I don't know why it is called the D-
Block, but it is the D-Block. Its 10 megahertz adds on to the 10 
megahertz they already had, making 20, which means they could do the 
whole thing, completely connect with each other, every sheriff, police 
person, law enforcement, Federal, State, county, municipal. They would 
all be on one system and talk to each other from a common 
communications base and a common database. It is an interoperable 
wireless broadband network that we have to have, and it is that which 
we do not have. We do not have it because we have not made the effort.
  Secondly, it gives the Federal Communications Commission the 
authority to do something very interesting: to hold incentive auctions 
based on the voluntary return of spectrum which is not necessarily 
being used by a whole variety of people who just want to hold on to it. 
It is better to hold on to something than to give it, but we give them 
an incentive on a voluntary basis--crucial word in this legislation--on 
a voluntary basis to return that spectrum. In turn, these auctions will 
provide the funding to support the construction and maintenance of the 
public safety network which they need and which I have been speaking 
about, and they free up additional spectrum for innovative commercial 
uses.
  In short, this bill marries resources for the first responders with 
good commercial spectrum policy. It can keep us safe and help our 
economy grow. That is why the legislation has the support of absolutely 
every major public safety organization across this country, obviously 
including those of my State. That is why this bill also has strong 
support from all Governors and all mayors across this country. They 
have to deal with this. We do not; they do. That is why we now have the 
support of the administration.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Public Safety Spectrum and 
Wireless Innovation Act. To those who say we cannot afford to do this 
now, obviously I would say we cannot afford not to. The role of 
intelligence reveals all kinds of things going on not only outside the 
country but inside the country, implying there is a target, or many of 
them, within this country.
  But if this is not compelling enough, I think it is important for 
people to know this. This legislation pays for itself, plus does not 
cost a dime. According to the White House and even the industry itself, 
the telecommunications industry, incentive auctions will bring in 
revenue so much above what funding public safety requires, it will 
leave billions over that amount for, for example, deficit reduction. I 
am talking a whole lot of deficit reduction. Billions and billions. So 
it is a win-win-win.
  I close. Let me say we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to 
provide our public safety officials with the spectrum they need to 
communicate when tragedy strikes. We have chosen not to do that. Now 
there is this sort of malicious pressure of the 9/11 Commission's 
directive to us to do our duty as a country to the people who keep us 
safe.
  More than that, we do need to keep this country safe, and it is not 
always going to be safe. We do not know when the next attack will come. 
So we have the incentive auctions, which are voluntary, but they will 
work. They can be sold for lots of money, and we will have, therefore, 
lots of money over and above what it costs to build this interoperable 
wireless broadband system across the entire country, connecting every 
law enforcement official to every other one.
  To my colleagues I say, let's seize this moment. This is not 
Republican, this is not Democrat, it is simply the right thing to do. I 
ask people to think back to those images of 9/11, of that day, not just 
the 9/11 Commission report that emanated from that, why we could not 
stop that, but to think of the images of that day, of what those people 
absorbed in their lungs, the natural instinct for firefighters to come 
from all over the country, policemen to come from all over the country, 
ambulance people to come from all over the country, to New York City, a 
city which they do not start out loving generally out there in the 
hinterlands. But they knew this was a crisis, they reacted, they saved 
lives, they imperiled their own, and many of them lost their lives.
  Let's do something historic, and let's do it together, and let's do 
it here in this Congress. And, certainly, let us get this all done 
before the 10th anniversary of September 11.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.

                          ____________________