[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21717-21718]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today the Commerce Committee was scheduled 
to conduct an afternoon hearing regarding emergency communications. I 
regret that the hearing was postponed, and I hope and expect that the 
session will be quickly rescheduled. The events of September 11, 2001, 
uncovered a fundamental weakness in our communications system. We 
learned the hard way that in a time of crisis--when communication is 
most important--our first responders could not communicate at a basic 
level. Now, some 4 years later, Katrina has showed we have not fixed 
the problem. One of the biggest problem facing police, fire and first 
responders in the gulf coast was that the communications system was 
knocked off line. It was remarkable to watch as

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the television news crews had better luck communicating than our first 
responders. As the disaster unfolded, emergency officials repeatedly 
cited communications failures as a major obstacle to the disaster 
response effort.
  So despite the good work of the 9/11 Commission and the hard work of 
national and local officials, we find that the system is not hardened 
against terror or nature, and we remain dangerously vulnerable. Like 
all of my colleagues, I want a system that will work when we need it 
most. Frankly, there is not much good in an emergency communications 
system that doesn't work in emergencies. We must push ahead with the 
DTV transition so that new spectrum is made available and new 
technologies can come online. The Federal Government must commit the 
time, resources, training, technology, and leadership to create a 
national and truly interoperable communications system. It is a 
national job to ensure capability across regions, among rescues units, 
and up and down chain of command.
  I also believe we should deploy a redundant emergency communications 
system that, with a flick of switch, will operate during times of 
crisis when the main system is disabled. I have introduced a bill to 
address this immediate need. S. 1703 requires experts at the Department 
of Homeland Security and the Federal Communications Commission evaluate 
the feasibility and cost of deploying an emergency communications 
system. The agencies will evaluate all reasonable options, including 
satellites, wireless and terrestrial-based systems. They will evaluate 
all available public and private resources that could provide such a 
system and submit a report to Congress detailing the findings.
  The DHS is then authorized to request appropriations to implement the 
system. Congress would then be in position to put in place whatever 
programs and funding are needed to get the job done. We have myriad 
day-to-day communications issues to address. I am mindful of these 
needs. As was pointed out by a witness in the Commerce Committee's 
morning hearing, we have major problems with ``operability'' within a 
particular agency that must be addressed before we can seriously tackle 
``interoperability''--communicating across jurisdictions and among 
different agencies.
  However, we must also take steps to address an immediate crisis. We 
must ensure that we can respond in emergency situations with an eye 
toward building a reliable, redundant system for the long term. It is 
my hope that the Congress will consider this proposal, and other 
relevant proposals, before we recess for the year. I look forward to 
working with my colleagues in that regard.

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