Paul J. Nyden, Staff Writer, Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)

Sen. Jay Rockefeller

National emergencies require increased federal efforts to secure communications, especially among first responders facing problems ranging from hurricanes and earthquakes to terror attacks, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said.

Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, ranking minority member of that committee, are renewing their efforts to get the Federal Communications Commission to improve the nation’s communications infrastructure.

On Wednesday, the Bipartisan Policy Center released its “Tenth Anniversary Report Card: The Status of the 9/11 Commission Recommendations.”

The report focuses on nine major unfinished recommendations from the 9/11 Commission, including the need to secure and expand the “public safety spectrum” system.

“The report is a wake-up call for everyone reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks,” Rockefeller said.

“Implementing a national, interoperable radio system for our first responders is within our grasp. It will save lives all across the country, and we owe it to first responders to get it done.

“There is bipartisan legislation awaiting Senate action that would accomplish this goal. I urge my colleagues to join me … and rededicate themselves to getting this done,” Rockefeller said on Wednesday.

The bipartisan legislation would set up an auction where companies who have communication spectrum reserved for themselves, through the FCC, would voluntarily give up some of their spectrum.

Last week, as the East Coast was preparing for Hurricane Irene, whose damage turned out to be less extensive than many expected, Rockefeller and Hutchinson sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

The letter was sent after the 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook land under most Eastern Seaboard states, triggering “significant communications failures.”

Police and firefighters, Rockefeller and Hutchison stated, are still without a “dedicated interoperable communications network” to protect lives.

“Americans should expect that they can reach their loved ones during an emergency,” Rockefeller and Hutchinson wrote to Genachowski.

“But our commercial networks are asked to do much more. Because first responders still do not have a nationwide wireless broadband network of their own, they must rely on these same commercial networks if they hope to access … text messaging and emails.”

The Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act, introduced on May 12, would create a unified communications system for police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders dealing with everything from criminal actions to natural disasters.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved that legislation by a 21-4 vote.

At the time, Rockefeller predicted the federal government would raise “$28 billion from people [and companies] voluntarily turning in their spectrum, like paging … which they are not using, or which they feel can be better used for public safety.”

It would cost $12 billion to $13 billion to build a nationwide system for first responders, Rockefeller estimated, leaving the federal government with another $9 billion or $10 billion.

The legislation approved by the Senate Commerce Committee is backed by first responders and President Obama, as well as governors and mayors across the country.

The legislation, Rockefeller and Hutchinson added, would also “create hundreds of thousands of jobs without costing taxpayers a dime…. We will continue to press our colleagues in Congress to approve this measure as soon as possible.”

Reach Paul J. Nyden at [email protected] or 304-348-5164.

Copyright © 2011 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.