To focus increased attention on NG911 funding, iCERT sent a letter to Senate and Commerce Committee leadership earlier today. VIEW LETTER
Our letter urges the Senate to act this year to pass legislation that would provide critical NG911 funding. In addition to stressing the sense of urgency for Congress to act, our goal is to demonstrate that there continues to be unified support for NG911 funding from industry and the public safety community.
As we reported in early August, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Spectrum Innovation Act of 2022 (H.R. 7624), a bipartisan bill which includes NG911 funding language, on July 27th. This has created momentum as the focus shifted to the U.S. Senate, where the discussions regarding extending the FCC’s spectrum auction authority and NG911 funding have been fluid since. As a result, iCERT and our stakeholder partners are working aggressively on the Senate side, urging Senators to pass NG911 funding legislation this year.
Key spectrum provisions included in the Spectrum Innovation Act, i.e., extension of the FCC’s spectrum auction authority and establishment of a spectrum pipeline, remain key issues for the Senate. However, it has become clear that neither Senate Democrats nor Republicans support the legislative framework passed by the House. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) is working on her own proposal, and we believe that includes funding for NG911. However, there continues to be disagreement among Senate Democrats and Republicans on key issues such as the length of the FCC’s auction authority, the details of a long-term spectrum pipeline, the manner in which Federal agencies would cooperate on spectrum reallocations, and how proceeds from future spectrum auctions will be used. Obviously, these are a lot of issues to resolve in a short amount of time, but we remain hopeful that the Congress will focus on these issues after the mid-term elections.
iCERT remains in close communication with stakeholder groups from across the telecommunications space and will continue to coordinate with them on efforts to pass NG911 funding. If you or your company can engage and lend resources to our effort, please don’t hesitate to contact iCERT Executive Director George Kelemen executivedirector@theindutrycouncil.org or iCERT Policy Committee Chairman Don Brittingham don@northernlights.co