Mr. Chairman, most of the witnesses appearing before you today will discuss issues related to the deployment of digital television throughout the country.  Those are important matters.  However, I am here today to discuss a closely related issue which has a far greater impact on the safety of life, health, and property for every citizen of this great nation. 

In particular, I want to state the Public Safety Organizations’ strong support for legislation that would establish December 31, 2006, as the firm date for completion of the digital television transition, at least as it related to television channels 60-69.  That would allow nationwide public safety use of radio spectrum already allocated for its use, but blocked in most metropolitan areas by ongoing television station operations.

In the year since last September 11, there has been much attention here in Washington on improving homeland security and public safety operations across the country, primarily from a Federal Government perspective.  However, it is important to remember the first line of defense against domestic terrorism, and the first response to terrorist attacks and other emergencies, is by state and local public safety agencies, not the Federal Government.   State and local governments, therefore, must have the necessary tools, including communications capabilities, to protect the safety of life, health and property.  That is why the legislation being discussed today is of such critical importance to public safety.

This legislation would have a direct impact on the ability of police officers and sheriff’s deputies to call for assistance on their portable radios without waiting for an open channel; the ability of a firefighters from different departments to communicate with each other at the scene of an emergency; and the ability of local governments to implement state-of-the art communications tools necessary to support police, fire, emergency medical and other public safety personnel. 

Effective, efficient, and interoperable radio communications capability is essential for both day-to-day operations that protect the safety of life, health and property, and for major emergencies such as winter storms, hurricanes, forest fires, the earthquakes and wildfires that we in Los Angeles must face on a regular basis, riots, train and plane accidents, major building fires, and -- especially since last year -- the increasing threat of terrorist attacks.

Public safety agencies have long had a critical need for additional radio spectrum to accommodate their increasingly complex communications requirements.  Spectrum is needed to alleviate dangerous congestion on many existing public safety radio systems, to provide capacity for new “interoperable” radio communications networks, and to permit implementation of new communications tools such as wideband mobile data capability.

Six years ago, on September 11, 1996, the joint FCC/NTIA Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee documented public safety spectrum requirements and recommended that approximately 24 MHz of spectrum be made available for public safety use within five years.   Unfortunately, exactly five years later, on September 11, 2001, that 24 MHz of new spectrum was not available for public safety use in most of the nation.   Furthermore, unless Congress revises existing law, that spectrum will not be available until far into the future.  

The Balanced Budget Act (“BBA”) of 1997 did, in fact, require the FCC to allocate an additional 24 MHz of radio spectrum for public safety services.  The 1997 BBA provided that the spectrum would be in the 746-806 MHz band, now occupied by television channels 60-69.  The FCC then did its part and reallocated to public safety the spectrum from TV channels 63, 64, 68, and 69 (764-776/794-806 MHz).

 The 1997 BBA allows these television stations to remain on-the-air until December 31, 2006, OR until 85% of households in the relevant market have the ability to receive DTV signals, whichever is later.   Unfortunately, for the reasons that you are discussing here today, it is highly unlikely that the 85% benchmark will be met until long after 2006, and probably not until well into the next decade.   As a result, police, fire, emergency medical and other public safety personnel must wait indefinitely for the additional radio spectrum and communications capabilities that they need today, not at some future, undefined date.

Attached to my testimony is a map which depicts the geographic areas in which existing TV stations are blocking the reallocated public safety spectrum.  As you can see, it includes most of the densely populated Northeast from Boston to New York to Washington, large portions of the Great Lakes Region, the Southeast including the Atlanta, Orlando, and Miami metropolitan areas, Dallas, San Francisco and most of Northern California, as well as my home City of Los Angeles and surrounding areas of Southern California.

I want to emphasize that merely speeding up the deployment of digital television to meet the 85% requirement is not enough.  Public safety needs a firm and early date for television stations to vacate the channels allocated for public safety use, as well as the adjacent channels.  Without a firm date, state and local governments cannot proceed with the planing, design, funding, and construction of new radio systems.  Under current law,  local governments are uncertain when, or even if, the spectrum will ever become available. 

Therefore, we urge that Congress establish December 31, 2006, as a firm and final date for television stations to vacate the channels blocking public safety use of this new radio spectrum.  Representative Jane Harman of this Subcommittee, and Representative Curt Weldon, who has been leader in helping our nation’s first responders, have offered a bill, H.R. 3397, the Homeland Emergency Response Operations (HERO) Act, which is aimed at addressing this issue, and which has the support of all of the organizations on whose behalf I appear today. 

The Public Safety Organizations also strongly support Section 3 of the draft DTV legislation recently distributed by your committee staff to the extent that it would eliminate the 85% “loophole” in the existing law and terminate broadcast operations on channels 60-69 by December 31, 2006.

Since September 11, 2001, the need for new radio spectrum has become even more critical, as reflected in the attached letter from the Los Angeles Police Department.  More and more state and local governments realize that their current public safety communications systems are often overcrowded and lack sufficient “interoperability” with other agencies and jurisdictions.  For example, in the New York City area, APCO which is certified by the FCC to coordinate public safety frequencies, has far more public safety agency requests for channels than it can possibly meet from existing spectrum allocations.  Similar problems occur throughout the country.  In many cases, the only option is to rely upon crowded “shared” channels and risk interference to life-saving operations.

The radio spectrum that television stations are currently blocking would also play a critical role in addressing a long-standing problem facing public safety communications.  All too often, “first responders” from different agencies arriving at an emergency cannot communicate with each other.  This occurs on both a day-to-day basis, and at major emergencies that draw responders from widely scattered agencies.  For example, in the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, personnel attempting to coordinate life-saving activities had to rely on hand signals and “runners” because their radios were incompatible. 

While this lack of “interoperability” has many causes, it is often the result of public safety agencies being forced by spectrum scarcity to operate in different, incompatible, radio frequency bands.  At any one time, the police officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel and others at an emergency scene may be operating on VHF, UHF, or 800 MHz radio systems, none of which can work together in the field.  

The solutions to interoperability are complex, but the most effective long-term solution is for public safety agencies in the same geographic area to operate in the same portion of the radio spectrum.  In some cases, wide-area, multi-agency, and multi-jurisdictional radio systems covering a large city, county, region, or state can provide interoperability among participating agencies (and more efficient use of scare resources).  However, most heavily populated areas lack sufficient spectrum to develop new wide-area radio systems.  Where such systems already exist, additional spectrum capacity is needed for new users and operations.

The spectrum from television channels 60-69 that has already been allocated for public safety will greatly improve interoperability.  The band is immediately adjacent to, and will be interoperable with, the 800 MHz band where many relatively new wide area public safety systems already exist.   The FCC has also designated certain channels within the newly allocated 700 MHz band for nationwide interoperability, and adopted a technical standard for those channels.  Once again, however, this nationwide interoperability will only exist once the current television stations vacate channels 60-69 and new public safety systems can be implemented.

While interoperability is primarily a state and local government agency issue, interoperability with federal agencies is increasingly important, especially with regard to new homeland security issues.  The creation of a new Department of Homeland Security, which will bring over 170,000 federal employees and 20 agencies under one roof, heightens the need for improved and better coordinated communications between all levels of government.  The events of September 11, 2001, have also placed new demands on all public safety communications.  State and local governments must add additional personnel and tasks both to prevent and, potentially, to respond to terrorist attacks.   For these reasons, we believe Congress should also consider expanding the existing public safety allocations beyond the current 24 MHz mandated in the 1997 BBA.   In any event, none of that public safety use will be possible on a nationwide basis until existing broadcasters vacate the spectrum.

Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the nation’s Public Safety Organizations, I thank you for the opportunity to appear here today, and I urge you and your colleagues to act quickly to establish a firm and final date for additional radio spectrum to be made available for public safety communications throughout the country.