First responders push Congress to act on broadcast frequency issue

While lawmakers are squabbling over legislation to free up airwaves for police and firefighters, first responders say they do not care which lawmaker or committee takes credit, but that Congress acts.

Robert Gurss, director of government affairs for the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, said Monday that the first responder group supports efforts by California Democrat Jane Harman and Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon to force certain broadcasters operating on four television channels off the airwaves to provide the spectrum for public safety. Their legislation, known as the HERO Act, would set a firm date of Jan.1, 2007.

The group also supports legislation by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who wants to force all broadcasters to relinquish their second television frequencies by the same date. Barton's panel has jurisdiction over the issue.

Gurss acknowledged Barton's bill is likely to carry the day. "If the only way its going to happen, politically, is to address all the spectrum, so be it," he said. "We want it, however we can get it."

In 1997, Congress established a transition to digital television promising first responders 24 megahertz once broadcasters vacated spectrum for analog stations.

Recently, Harman, Weldon and other lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee have framed the debate as a turf war between their panel and Barton's committee.

Harman said the Homeland Security panel of which she is a member cannot bring up the Harman-Weldon measure because Barton's panel has oversight authority. She and others also argued the television broadcasters are waging an effective lobbying strategy to stop the Energy and Commerce panel from taking up the issue.

"[W]e can't get anywhere in the Commerce Committee, as you know, because the broadcasters are blocking us," she said last month. Weldon and Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said the Homeland panel needed to stand up to the broadcasters.

Barton, for his part, told broadcasters last month that he would introduce his legislation within three weeks. He added he would be open to delaying that date a "little bit," but not by two or three years, he said. There is no similar legislation this year in the Senate.

The National Association of Broadcasters Monday said the so-called interoperability issue has been resolved, pointing to comments by former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in 2004 that first responders in the top, high-risk urban areas are able to talk to each other.

It had been a problem for decades, and on Sept. 11, 2001 several New York City firefighters died after experiencing radio transmission problems. The 9/11 Commission called the impaired communication on that day a "critical element" that hindered rescue efforts.

The NAB also said while it supports a firm date for the transition, broadcasters support certain lawmakers' claim that a premature end to analog stations would be disruptive to millions of Americans.