[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10171-10172]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    FIRST RESPONSE BROADCASTERS ACT

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I rise today not to speak about the Iraq 
war or the supplemental, which has been the focus of this morning's 
debate. I will return to the floor later to speak on both of those 
subjects. I wanted to take a minute this morning, while we had some 
time, to speak about a bill I intend to introduce later this week with 
my cochair, the ranking member

[[Page 10172]]

of our new Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery, Senator Ted Stevens from 
Alaska, and other members of my subcommittee, Senators Carper and 
Pryor, as we begin to lay down pieces of legislation that are apparent 
and necessary to improve the general disaster response for this 
country, which has been found to be severely lacking.
  The bill I will introduce later today is called the First Response 
Broadcasters Act. It is a piece of legislation, as I said, I will be 
filing with other members of my subcommittee.
  As my State continues to rebuild out of the rubble and destruction 
and devastation of the first and third worst natural disasters to hit 
the country, and the subsequent levee breaks that filled up a major 
American city within 24 hours and continues to wreak havoc on those 
struggling to get home and rebuild their lives, we learned one of the 
most vital lessons was that information--good information, accurate 
information--was not only vital, but it was essential as the first 
building block to our recovery. In providing it, all of our local 
media--broadcasters, Web sites and newspapers--did an amazing job to 
keep the people of Louisiana and our region and the gulf coast 
informed. Frankly, they also kept informed the Nation and world 
community that was aghast at what was happening in south Louisiana and 
the New Orleans region from Katrina, and in the Southwest region from 
Rita 4 weeks later.
  With phone lines down, cell phones out, and streets too flooded to 
move around to get any kind of perspective about what was actually 
happening, and where the 4 to 20 feet of water was coming from, when we 
had never seen anything like that in the history of our city, the sound 
of local radio and television stations was what hundreds of thousands 
of my constituents relied on. It was the only voice for them in the 
first darkest days and nights, and it continued for weeks and months. 
Actually, Mr. President, it continues to this day. And because of the 
credibility of our local broadcasters at a time when the public needed 
them, they were there. Our local broadcasters provided lifesaving 
information.
  As you will recall, we have lost over 1,000 lives in Louisiana and 
over 200 lives in Mississippi. But many lives, I am convinced, were 
saved because broadcasters, having lost their own stations, their own 
equipment, their own homes, and with their own loved ones missing, 
stayed on the job. More importantly, they stayed on the air so the 
reporters could report what was happening, and even those of us in 
powerful positions could get a better handle on the situation.
  As local radio and television stations stand up, as so many did, and 
put commercial interests aside to serve the public interest, the 
Federal Government, in my opinion, should be ready to stand up with 
them. That is what this bill is about. It is not a long or complicated 
bill. It really doesn't cost very much money. But it will have a major 
impact as this Nation tries to fashion better responses for our 
country. We are in desperate need of new tools, new tool boxes, and 
this is one of them.
  In fact, for more than 50 years, we have required local broadcasters 
to be at the front line of sounding the alarm in a disaster. With the 
entire industry dependent upon public airwaves, broadcasters have a 
duty to serve the public in times of crisis. That is what so many of 
them did.
  This is why stations today are required by law to be part of the 
emergency alert system. At the system's core are 34 primary entry 
points, radio stations with direct lines from emergency command centers 
in Washington and in their State. But half of our States don't even 
have these entry points. To receive an alert in Mississippi, for 
example, you needed to rely on the message being passed on from station 
to station from an entry point in Louisiana.
  One of the several things this bill does is add primary entry points 
to every underserved State and region to make sure every State has an 
equal chance to be well prepared when disaster strikes and to try to 
put their best assets forward. I have said many times that all the 
assets in the world, all the plans in the world are not worth the paper 
they are written on, or the text found on Internet Web sites, if you 
cannot communicate them at the appropriate time to the appropriate 
people in the appropriate order.
  What good is a successful emergency information chain if the last 
link fails? By technical necessity, this last link is right in the 
disaster's path. Simply put, a transmitter needs to be in the same area 
as the people in need of a warning.
  Despite our Federal investment in emergency systems and entry point 
stations, there were several gulf coast broadcasters after the 
hurricanes who could not stay on the air simply because the Government, 
our Government, took their fuel away. Let me repeat this. The stations 
struggling to stay on the air, to tell first responders and others what 
was actually happening, to try to get their signals up, their 
electricity up, so when people in Washington kept asking what is going 
on, we could give some answers, the fuel was confiscated because some 
low-level FEMA person decided they had higher priorities.
  When this bill is passed, local broadcasters will be on the list as 
first responders, and their food, water, and fuel will not be allowed 
to be taken away, so that the public can get the information they are 
desperate for in as independent and accurate way as possible.
  It also creates a matching grant program. It also helps to bring 
broadcast engineers back into the disaster zone more quickly to restore 
transmitters and other key facilities.
  No disaster warning evacuation plan or emergency instruction matters 
if it cannot get to the people who need to hear it. That is basically 
why this bill is so important.
  Finally, the bill is very important for the journalists, who depend 
on all of this equipment, technology and access to do their job, which 
is to report the story in as accurate a fashion as they can to the 
public that needs to respond, as well as the first responders 
themselves, and to Government leaders.
  For journalists working to tell the story, newspapers and Web sites 
included, the bill makes sure that the local officials who know the 
local reporters best decide where the journalists can go, who can go 
and how long they can stay.
  Again, there will be no longer a contract, part-time FEMA official 
directing the news media or the broadcasters. The law will govern their 
basic rights, put them on the right list, make it clear they themselves 
are first responders and, in this Senator's view, extremely important 
first responders.
  I am extremely pleased to have Senator Stevens join me. This is a 
bipartisan bill. It is not complicated, it is rather simple, but 
critical as we begin to stand up a better disaster response this 
country is certainly most worthy of. The people of Louisiana, 
Mississippi, Texas, Florida, and other parts of the country are still 
suffering from disasters that in split seconds, in minutes, sometimes 
in a few hours, dash the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans.
  We cannot prevent tornadoes. We most certainly cannot prevent 
hurricanes. We cannot prevent earthquakes. We can do a better job of 
predicting them. But the most important thing we can do is to warn 
people and help people deal with these terrible tragedies that come 
their way.
  In this Senator's view, we have a lot of work to do.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SUNUNU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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