By Mark Sommer
Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Friday she is sponsoring legislation to create a wireless broadband network to enable emergency responders to better communicate with one another during an emergency.
The legislation echoes a similar call made by President Obama during his State of the Union address, and was one of the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission after the 2001 terrorist attack in New York City.
“All of our first responders have to be able to communicate on the same network. Nearly 10 years after the horrors of 9/11, we cannot wait any longer to bring this technology to the 21st century,” said Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
New York’s junior senator spoke during a news conference in the Public Safety Campus, which serves Buffalo and Erie County as a dispatch center, 911 readiness center and forensics lab.
Gillibrand said she hoped recent world events could spur the legislation to be signed before the 10-year anniversary.
“I think in light of the natural disasters such as we have just seen in Japan, people are beginning to realize you can’t plan for every awful terrorist attack or natural disaster, so you have to be ready,” she said.
Gillibrand blamed President George W. Bush for previous failures of similar legislation to advance.
“I don’t think the previous president made it a priority. I don’t think it had the presidential leadership it needed,” Gillibrand said.
Gregory W. Skibitsky, the county’s commissioner of emergency services, and Central Police Services Commissioner Peter Vito heartily endorsed the legislation.
“First responders are every day out there helping save lives and protecting our communities. It’s critical that they have the ability with frequencies and this broadband spectrum to effectively communicate with one another,” Skibitsky said.
“This is critically important legislation. We need it,” Vito said.
Gillibrand also weighed in on other issues:
- Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be released quickly to lower gas prices, a step Obama has rejected. More investment in renewable industries is needed for the long term.
- The jury is out on whether hydrofracking is environmentally safe, but the value of clean drinking water “far outweighs” greater access to natural gas.
- In light of a Senate report that found evidence of massive criminal conduct, she is taking a wait-and-see attitude to see if federal investigations lead to the first high-level prosecutions in the wake of the economic calamity.
- She was disappointed the 2011 budget passed by Congress slashed wastewater and sewage treatment in Buffalo.
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