Lawmakers urge government, industry to partner on emergency communications

Two key lawmakers on Wednesday said government agencies need to establish partnerships with the private sector in order ensure that critical communications infrastructure is reliable and available during emergency situations.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said private entities responded faster and more effectively to Hurricane Katrina than their public counterparts at all levels of government.

Speaking at an event organized by the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, Collins said agencies should form regional response teams with private-sector partners that could be deployed rapidly and facilitate communications systems that work across jurisdictions.

According to Collins, private organizations are invaluable in the response process because they control large portions of critical communications infrastructure and because they empower officials on the front line of disasters to make decisions in a way public bodies do not.

She also said the government needs to establish identification standards for all communications officials so private and public responders are able to deploy resources more swiftly.

Collins said she expects that her committee will release a report on its investigation of the response to Hurricane Katrina within the next month. She said there is an accord among the committee about the role that private partners should play in disaster response, but there is still disagreement about whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be taken out of the Homeland Security Department.

"Just taking FEMA out of the department is not the solution," she said.

House Homeland Security ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who also spoke at the event, said Katrina revealed fundamental weaknesses in government response capabilities, but the storm also demonstrated the effectiveness of private responders.

"The key to all of this is whether the private sector is adequately engaged in the process," Thompson said.

Both private and public emergency responders need to develop and deploy communications technologies based on risk, according to Thompson. He also said the Homeland Security Department needs to open more avenues for private responders to share their ideas.

Thompson said all government agencies need to be more judicious in how they incorporate technology into their overall strategies. Specifically, he said robust port security is achievable only if technology is appropriately utilized.

A group of Senate lawmakers, meanwhile, communicated similar ideas to Cabinet officials Wednesday. A letter drafted by New Hampshire Republican John Sununu was sent to White House Office Budget and Management Director Josh Bolten, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

The letter urged the administration to consider grant proposals that would allow the purchase of interoperable safety communications equipment. It also singled out the potential for Internet technologies to improve communications networks.

The other signers included: George Allen, R-Va.; Conrad Burns, R-Mont.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; and Jim Talent, R-Mo.