By Brian Spadora
Herald News (Passaic County, NJ)
Copyright 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill aimed at making it easier for first responders to communicate during an emergency.
The legislation would improve “interoperability,” or communications among different kinds of emergency services — including police, fire and EMTs — as well as across levels of government, from local to federal, supporters of the bill said.
The legislation was spurred in part by the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when the inability of responders to communicate led to greater loss of life, according to the Sept. 11 Commission.
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, who co-authored the legislation, said the government knew about communications problems faced by first responders well before Sept. 11.
“So we have known about the problems that exist, and many have explored the possible remedies that we should undertake,” Pascrell said Tuesday during the debate on the House floor. “Yet many in Congress sit, after 9/11, after Hurricane Katrina, wondering why no real progress has been made. That changes today. The bottom line is this: (the legislation) will improve the capability of first responders to communicate during times of emergency.”
“The 21st Century Emergency Coordination Act,” which passed by a vote of 414-2, would:
* Establish an Office of Emergency Communication within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
* Create regional working groups made up of public and private sector communications experts to asses needs in different geographical areas.
* Require state and local governments to establish statewide interoperability communications plans before being able to use DHS grant funds for emergency communications. Funds could be used only for equipment that met those standards.
“The 30 largest cities in the U.S. don’t have proper communications in times of emergencies,” he said in a phone interview after the vote.
Before the legislation is enacted, it will have to be passed by the U.S. Senate.
That could happen in September, Pascrell said.
If the Senate passes the legislation, Congress would have to determine funding for each of the bill’s initiatives when the DHS budget is decided, said Caley Gray, a spokesman for Pascrell.
Pascrell said adequate funding is critical, because communications equipment has been neglected in many areas. “We’re dealing with a lot of antiquated equipment,” he said. “We’ve got to get up to snuff.”
Pascrell said Congress must also address public safety departments’ needs for bandwidth, or range of broadcast frequencies. The Federal Communications Commission oversees bandwidth, the majority of which was sold to private television broadcasters.
Capt. James Hearney, commander of the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department’s special operations division, said bandwidth and equipment are both problems. His department uses 12-year-old radio equipment to manage the county’s 911 emergency response program and its hazardous materials response team, he said.
“Would you drive a car that was over 10 years old in the public safety arena?” Hearney said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Would you use a laptop that was 10 years old?”
Hearney said there is not enough interoperability in the county. The Sheriff’s Department can speak to each of the county’s municipalities, he said, but a municipal radio system does not work when one user is outside of the municipality’s borders. The county must speak to the state police on an antiquated system and has no way of communicating with federal authorities, he said.
Hearney said much has improved since Sept. 11, but not nearly enough.
He said he hoped the legislation approved Tuesday could be part of the solution.
“I’m not a big guy on federal oversight, but it’s got to be done,” he said. “It’s going to be 2007. That’s six years” since Sept. 11.