Subject: [NEXTEL-1] HOUSE COMMITTEE APPROVES BILL TO STREAMLINE FIRST RESPONDER FUNDING

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 05:32:04 -0500

HOUSE COMMITTEE APPROVES BILL TO STREAMLINE FIRST RESPONDER FUNDING

The House Select Committee on Homeland Security today approved
legislation (HR 3266) designed to streamline the grant process to first
responders at the state and regional levels to help pay for needs such
as
communications equipment upgrades.  The measure would authorize
$3.4 billion in fiscal year 2006 for such grants.

The bill, introduced last October by Rep. Christopher Cox (R., Calif.),
the committee's chairman, would create a state and regional grant
program within the Department of Homeland Security's Office of
State and Local Coordination, reducing the current 12-step grant
process to two steps.

"This is the most comprehensive congressional effort to date to
expedite the delivery of federal assistance to first responders where
it
is most needed and, at the same time, to end undisciplined spending on
homeland security," Rep. Cox said.  Citing "the need to reform the
current bureaucratic process," he noted that $5.5 billion allocated
during the past three years for state and local government homeland
security preparedness remained in the pipeline.

Under the legislation, DHS would be required to award grants based
on the level of threat to a state or region, not based on a statutorily
required minimum for small states or population-based formulas.  The
legislation would require DHS's secretary to establish "essential
capabilities" that state and local governments need to be prepared for
terrorist attacks.  An advisory task force would be formed to help in
that process.

DHS would be required to report annually to Congress on how
agencies' vulnerabilities were being addressed.  The department would
have to deliver a terrorism preparedness report card to lawmakers on
both a state-by-state and national level.  DHS also would be required
to establish "national voluntary consensus standards" governing first
responder equipment.  States would be required to pass 80% of the
funds they receive to local governments and other entities with 45 days
of receiving them.

The measure expresses the sense of Congress "that interoperable
emergency communications systems that meet national voluntary
consensus standards should be developed and promulgated as soon as
practicable for use by first responders," according to a summary of an
amended version of the bill that was approved 37-0.

"The legislation before us today meets the challenges of our times,"
said Rep. Jim Turner (D., Texas), the committee's ranking member.
"Instead of relying on an arbitrary formula, the bill is based on the
principle of building essential capabilities across the country to
respond to the threats and the vulnerabilities our communities face."

He added that lawmakers were addressing the "communications
interoperability problem by funding innovative emergency systems
that can provide interoperability right now.  We also encourage long-
term solutions by requiring the federal government to set
communications equipment standards."

An amendment introduced by Rep. Kendrick B. Meek (D., Fla.) that
was approved by voice vote would direct the DHS secretary to conduct
a study to assess "whether it is cost-effective, efficient, or feasible
to
establish and implement an emergency telephonic alert notification
system" that could notify the public about terrorist attacks.  "In
conducting the study, the secretary shall consider the use of the
telephone, wireless communications, and other existing
communications networks to provide such notification," the
amendment states.  DHS would have nine months after the bill is
enacted to complete the study.

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R., Wis.), chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee, noted that his panel also would consider the bill
and indicated plans to restore the small-state grant minimum that the
legislation removes.  Rep. Don Young (R., Alaska), chairman of the
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he had
concerns about the bill but said he would address them when his panel
considers it. - Paul Kirby, [email-masked]

http://www.tr.com/online/trd/2004/td031804/index.htm

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