Lieberman Wants D-Block Reallocation in Debt Limit Deal
Congress should reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety as part of a debt limit agreement next week, said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. He spoke Wednesday at a committee hearing on emergency communications, as Congress continued to wrangle over reducing the deficit and raising the debt ceiling. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., proposed giving public safety $7 billion and the D-block in a debt proposal earlier this week (CD July 27 p2). The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the Reid plan would cost much less than the Senate Commerce Committee’s proposed Spectrum Act (S-911).
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"Here, all of a sudden … we've got the possibility of actually achieving” a national interoperable public safety network “as a resolution of this larger [debt] crisis in the next week,” Lieberman said. “That would be great.” Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, responded that “it would be good if something positive came out of this [debt] debacle that we find ourselves in."
Lieberman wants to know why the Reid plan provides only $7 billion to public safety, about $4 billion less than S-911 and the public safety bill (S-1040) Lieberman introduced with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Reid’s reasons for providing less money “are yet unclear to me,” Lieberman said. “We want to see what’s going on there.” Lieberman said he and McCain “are committed” to working with Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to pass S-911.
The spectrum part of Reid’s plan would reduce direct spending by $13.1 billion, said the CBO. That’s less than Reid’s prediction of $15 billion, but twice S-911’s CBO score of $6.5 billion. In both cases, CBO estimated that spectrum auctions would raise $24.5 billion. CBO said Reid’s bill spends $11.4 billion through 2021.
A separate debt limit proposal by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, didn’t include spectrum provisions. CBO said late Tuesday that his would save $350 million less than Boehner predicted. That “creates some possibility spectrum provisions could still be added,” Stifel Nicolaus wrote investors. “Our sense is the House leadership believes it would be better policy to hold the spectrum provisions off until the second round,” the analysts said. “But if House leadership changes its mind, we assume they would borrow” from the House Commerce Committee GOP draft, which auctions the D-block, Stifel said. Spectrum auctions are not on the table for the House debt limit bill, a Boehner spokesman told us late Wednesday.
"The allocation of the D-block for public safety organizations, with adequate capacity, control and funding, is the only proposal that will meet the challenges and demands that we confront,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said at the hearing, on behalf of the Public Safety Alliance. Public safety has “done a lot to try and patch” together networks throughout the country “as best we can,” but doesn’t have “anything close to a permanent solution,” Ramsey said. Bringing down equipment costs for public safety is “one of the hopes” of the Obama administration’s proposal to build a national public safety network, said Gregory Schaffer, acting deputy under secretary of the Homeland Security Department’s National Protection and Programs Directorate.
Collins is disappointed President Barack Obama proposed terminating funding for the Interoperability Emergency Communications grant program in his FY2012 budget, she said. “It’s a pretty modest program in the scheme of things, but it’s been very helpful to states.” Schaffer defended Obama, saying similar grant programs would exist to fill the hole. Collins supports consolidating grant programs, but “if you don’t have a targeted stream of funding” for “improving interoperability and sustainability of emergency equipment, you're not going to reach the goal that we all agree is necessary,” she said. Lieberman and Collins have voiced concerns to the Appropriations Committee, she said.
Collins is readying legislation “to strengthen the nation’s public alerts and warning system,” the ranking member said. “Getting information to the public before disasters strike helps to save lives, reduce property damage and prepares people for what is coming,” she said. Warning systems should be improved to “embrace today’s technology,” including cellphones and social media, she said. Collins “is looking at ways to use technology and new media vehicles in public alert systems,” her spokeswoman later clarified. The idea is to communicate “with people with the tools they are comfortable with,” the spokeswoman said: Collins “also is thinking about ways to ensure the inclusion of those with disabilities and special needs and reach more folks in rural and remote areas.” Collins doesn’t have a timetable for introducing the bill, the spokeswoman said.
An industry standard for emergency alerts would help, said Rob McAleer, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency. “If we are … chasing the emerging technology that’s out there, we might always be in a race.” Philadelphia uses modern technologies to alert the public “as best we can,” Ramsey said. “One of the shortcomings in preparedness in this country is preparing the communities on a consistent basis on what to do in the event of an emergency,” he said: It would help if the FCC “set aside one hour a month” for public service announcements at prime time to “constantly remind people of certain things that they need to do.”