Transcripts For DW DW News - News 20240708

And 50 minute event. Subcommittee on Emergency Response and public will come to order. The department of Homeland Security and our Intelligence Community regarding current and emerging threats to our homeland. Today the Emergency Preparedness response and recovery subcommittee will examine progress made in Emergency Communications since september 11, 2001 and discussed the challenges that may still persist today. As you know from Emergency Managers and First Responders served september 11 and the 911 Commission Report Police Officers, firefighters and Emergency Medical Services experienced significant problems communicating their own agencies and with others responding back to. On the morning of september 11, i was assigned to the Orlando International airport as the commander of the Orlando Police Department Airport police division. Reports of the attack on the World Trade Center emerged in federal Aviation Administration ordered all aircraft grounded. Airport and Law Enforcement leadership had to immediately execute Emergency Operations to protect passengers, employees and the public. I know how the First Responders felt in orlando. I cant even begin to imagine First Responders on the ground the experience they went through in new york. My husband served in Law Enforcement as well and i have two sons who are firefighters. My heart continues to go out to the families who lost loved ones that tragic day. Communications and interoperability are essential. First responders considered their lifeline. Over the next months and years, incredible progress has been made to address undescribable challenges september 11 in the nations emergency communication apparatus for programs such as First Responder Network Authority and integrated public alert and warning system. However, challenges in operability and interoperability still persist our aging 911 infrastructure poses additional vulnerabilities. In operability and interoperability remain among the greatest concerns that First Responders and Public Safety officials face. Tragedy and disaster can come as we all know, in many forms. Climate change poses significant growing challenges for Emergency Communications from robert spreading wildfires in the west to increasingly strong frequent hurricanes, south powers and radioCommunication Systems remain vulnerable to critical failures. In august, Hurricane Ida filed for category four storm crash, new orleans louisiana 911 call center and First Authority making it difficult, if not impossible to respond to emergencies. Members of congress, we know we have an Important Role in the improvement of Emergency Communications technology. We must continue to provide funding through grants such as state Homeland Security program and urban Area Security initiative. These programs have provided critical funding for jurisdictions by equipment, build and fix Communications Towers and make broadband improvements. Grant programs are created for urban areas, we understand Rural Communities and tribal plants face their own challenges broadband and conductivity that can also complicate Emergency Response. Federal grant support these communities for can always be more robust to meet the needs more completely. Communications interoperability and resilient infrastructure our priorities for emergency and First Responders, the public may only experience their benefit or challenges during times of crisis. Todays hearing will serve as an important form to understand the currency of emergency Communication Systems and any gaps that may still persist. I am grateful today for the participation of our witnesses and i look forward to your testimony. The chair now recognizes Ranking Member of the subcommittee from florida one Opening Statement. Thank you, i appreciate your leadership on this issue and as weve said many times before, florida has two leaders focus on our First Responders, Emergency Preparedness and extremely personal ties to this so thank you for convening this important hearing today on our First Responder communications. As we know, First Responders play an invaluable role in communities across america ensuring they have necessary training equipment, funding and resources is a top priority. I look forward to working with the chairman to address challenges currently facing our First Responders and i know she cares deeply about. Last month we mourned the 20th anniversary of the september 11 attacks, the 9 11 Commission Report that recounted the events surrounding that day called attention to the lack of communication among Emergency Personnel 909 mitigation call centers and individuals in towers causing confusion ultimately costing lives. One Fire Department chief stationed in the north towers quoted saying people watching on tv certainly had more knowledge of what was happening 100 floors above us than we did in the lobby. Without critical information coming in, its difficult to make informeds lifesaving critical positions. I said this before, my own husband that became a firefighter in part because of 9 11 watching 343 men and women run into the towers to save their community members, their neighbors and coworkers and i cant imagine the wife of a First Responder, what would be like to witness in real time lack of communication on the ground. Fast forward after First Responders experienced communication problems in 2005 during katrina, post katrina reform act, this took significant steps to standardize Emergency Communications across the country by establishing National Emergency medications plan. As a result of the work, accomplished by an acp survey conducted in 2018 found 84 of state territorial respondents reported significant or some improvement in the strengthening of their communications operability. Postpetition katrina reform act helped provide state and local First Responders with Grant Funding to develop and implement medication in operability plans to enhance interoperable medications for Public Safety officials at all levels of government. In 2012 Congress Took an additional step to improve nations emergency medication network passing middleclass tax relief and job creation act. This established the First Responder Network Authority, first net which is responsible for overseeing build operation of a nationwide Public Safety broadband network. This Public Safety network has been critical in trying during a disaster necessary information is able to reach First Responders on the ground while both post katrina Emergency Management and middleclass job creation act made significant improvements to emergency communication, many challenges still remain. One such challenge facing networks is the threat of a cyber attack in a recent survey conducted found a third of organizations indicated Cyber Security incidents had an impact on the ability of Emergency Response providers and government officials ability to communicate the past five years the study found Fire Departments and organizations located in rural areas tend to be the least prepared for cybersecurity attacks with 62 of Fire Departments indicating they do not conduct any cybersecurity planning and over 55 of organizations surveyed indicated backup funding is a reason they do not and cannot invest in cybersecurity. First responders in rural areas, one of my counties in my district oftentimes do not have necessary funding to update their technology and even when they can secure the necessary funds the technology can be unreliable because of lack of coverage. While advances in Technology May lead to increase in cyber attack, technological innovation can be revolutionary. Next generation find one enhances capabilities of todays 911 networks allowing compatibility with more communication to provide greater Situational Awareness to dispatchers and Emergency Responders. Next generation or 911 call centers to accept and process voice call, videos and Text Messages from responders and the public. This could be a game changer. For those in need and those responding to the call. As we continue to work to address challenges facing Emergency Communications networks to improve capabilities across the board we must work to ensure we are not pursuing onesizefitsall approach that may not accommodate unique needs many communities face, especially those in Rural Communities. Conversations have been made to improve conversations over the last 20 years but we have a long way to go. In preparation for todays hearing, i spoke with several of my sheriff fire chiefs and Emergency Managers. We are no better today than we were 20 years ago so today i look forward to hearing from our witnesses on what additional steps we can take to ensure First Responders have the information and conductivity to continue serving our communities. With that, i yield back. I want to thank Ranking Members, members are reminded that the subcommittee will operate according to the guidelines laid out by the chairman and Ranking Member in their february 3 call regarding remote procedures. Without objection, members not on the subcommittee shall be permitted to question the witnesses. It is now my honor to welcome our panel of witnesses. Our first witness is doctor curtis rodrigues. Doctor rodriguez is a director of the Homeland Security Emergency Management agency for the district of columbia where he serves as Homeland Security advisor state coordinating officer. The state Administrative Agent for all home and Security Federal Grant Funding. For the district and the National Capitol region. Prior to his current role, he served as director of new jerseys office of Homeland Security and preparedness 2014 2017. Doctor rodriguez serves as Senior Analyst ms. Central Intelligence Agency Counterterrorism Center following the attacks of september 11. Doctor rodriguez, thank you so much for joining us. The chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan to introduce our second witness. Thank you for letting me do a cameo here, i want to to do it just to acknowledge captain meyer, one of your witnesses today. Thank you for allowing me to introduce him, i had the privilege of introducing him in michigan and open county Sheriffs Office to command Emergency Communications Operations Division and one of the foremost advocates for modernizing nations Emergency Communications as chairman of the Public Safety nextgeneration 911 coalition. Overseeing radio 911 within the sheriffs Operation Center communication representative within open counties and Emergency Operations. He began his career in Law Enforcement 28 years ago as a officer in garden state Police Officer before joining the Sheriffs Office in 2009. Hes a local leader and captain meyer is one of michigans most knowledgeable experts on the subject and has been a scholar champion connecting First Responders in two decades. 911 technology and at the forefront of developing their immutably medications in michigan so it is my pleasure, to welcome him to the committee today. Thank you so much for the introduction and captain meyer, thank you for joining us today. Chief was a member of the First Service who responded to ground zero and men had for two weeks. Thank you for your continued service this day. Active in service for nearly 30 years mainly with the seattle department. In addition to the 9 11, responding to incidents including hurricanes in the pacific, atlantic and gulf of mexico. Chief works in the Fire Department Operation Division and 911 center. Communications for nation, the Department Specialty team. Chief, its an honor to have you with us today and thank you for joining us. The chair recognizes the Ranking Member to introduce our fourth witness from the great state of florida. Thank you chairwoman. Everyone has been wondering on this call, is gator actually his name . Yes, hes named gator. Its with great affection and pleasure to introduce my client and fantastic sheriff in florida, sheriff gator. Lifelong resident of Putnam County, hes had a long career in service, starting over 20 years ago. Integral role throughout his career where he held leadership positions, drug unit patrol and property crime to lieutenant of criminal investigation bureau. January 2017, sheriff was born in Putnam County and we are lucky to have you in this role. Im honored to be all representative in congress and thank you for your continued service to our community and your work on the taskforces we have. Thank you for your testimony today and yes, his name is actually gator. [laughter] thank you to the Ranking Member and florida state, welcome sheriff gator. Thank you to our witnesses for joining us today. Without objection, the witnesses statements will be inserted into the record. I ask the witnesses to summarize their statements for five minutes beginning with Doctor Rodriguez. Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. Especially greetings to new jersey representatives who work closely with the state director in 2014 and 17. I am the director of the d. C. Homeland security Emergency Agency and appointee of bowser, i am honored here to talk about the district of columbia needs and communications since the tragic events of 9 11. When it comes to emergency communication, theres no place in the country perhaps in the world than a special capitol region. The ever present threat of terrorism landscape here in the district is unique. We are home to 40 federal and local agencies and a robust mutual aid system in the mid atlantic region. All of us need to communicate across the spectrum of possible contingencies and people often talk about Emergency Communications, they think in terms of radios but these are challenges we know face are multifaceted and these technologies beyond mobile radios. I would like to discuss a few challenges unique to the district. Cellular Communications Effective Emergency Response utilized first met for First Responders in 2018 providing dedicated cellular productivity and Public Safety community continuing sharing data and video in case of congestion. Partnership has enabled us to request rapidly deployable cellular infrastructure to support the demand of incidents. Leading up to the 2021 president ial exoneration in january 6 we had coordinated to have such infrastructure in place for u. S. Capitol complex. This collaboration dedicated bandwidth allowed to perform reliable for First Responders january 6. We are in the process of working with Rapid Deployable units which will contribute in selfsufficiency for Emergency Communications. While the ability to communicate between partners, to quickly reach the public is equally important. You need to challenge the district as we receive visitors and populations. Emergency notification systems or Public Safety officials on social media. Its proven to be incredibly valuable resource in the learning toolbox and my agency has been growing in this space since it was tested before the 2017 president ial inauguration. Following this test was the first of a kind in the nation and staff were shared best practices and burning procedures with state and local travel territorial partners. The powerful 12, we still see challenges outside of our intended targeted area. As an alerting message in overuse or inappropriate use can lead them out of the service and limit abilities to reach them in an emergency. Announcing curfews during the black lives matters protest after january 6 insurrection and extreme weather events so including reliability and communications in the district is top priority for us and i appreciate opportunity to share these experiences so thank you very much. Thank you so much for your testimony, i recognize captain to summarize his statement for five minutes. Good afternoon, thank you for that introduction. Im a captain in michigan. I offer my comments today on behalf of other members represented by the association. [inaudible] Radio Communications, 911 systems [inaudible] i look forward to questions afterwards. Overall 20 years we can progress there is still more to be done. The ability to communicate is essential in respondents for an active shooter or terrorist attack. Since 9 11, technologies and operability, Public Safety agencies, state Homeland Security and improved infrastructure. Technology and interoperability still exists, there still remains a time for coordination for interoperability Communication Systems. For technology, systems and continual learning in systems. [inaudible] we were on the verge of the next generation becoming widely deployed across the United States. Next generation was developed to address legacy 911 systems. [inaudible] without federal funding, they cannot transition anytime soon. This will create a patchwork of haves and havenots. Capabilities throughout the United States and facts not fair to responders or the citizens. Some centers will achieve engineering while others, especially those in rural areas will not have the means. The Public Safety Net Coalition includes [inaudible] fire, ems, Law Enforcement and Emergency Communications professionals. We are advocating for the commitment of 15 billing and federal grants to support a nationwide engineering [inaudible] we strongly believe this once in a Generation Investment will allow successful deployment of this nationwide. It improves Emergency Response and saves lives. Not 11 recommended [inaudible] dedicated nationwide networks solely for First Responders. Since the creation, coverage and capacity to consistently improve, there is a dedicated network focused on Public Safety. There are over 2. 5 million first actions across 17 thousand Public Safety agencies and organizations. Reliable coverage, throughout the United States. There is progress to be made, congress should continue to ensure these needs to realize the full promise of first met. [inaudible] the ability to quickly reach more public. In my home state of michigan, during the covid pandemic, information on Public Health orders and recommendations, important Public Health emergency information. At the same time there are opportunities for system. Students do not work on selling of devices and failed to reach the public. We should continue to better integrate systems [inaudible] everyone of our citizens deserve the best and most reliable emergency medication systems. I look forward to your questions. Thank you so much for your testimony. There is a bit of a conductivity issue there. I know our team is going to troubleshoot with your team so thank you for being with us today. The chair now recognizes chief lumbar to summarize his statements for five minutes. Good morning, i am chris, deputy fire chief of seattle Fire Department and acting chair of the Communications Committee for the international were you able to hear the last . I appreciate the opportunity to discuss. As a responder who assisted with efforts to ground zero in new york, i am aware Communications Issues on that day in 2001 and progress made sense. Safe, and first met a childs for improving interoperability, federal grants have greatly improved Responder Communications through funding, training information hearings and equipment. As others mentioned, First Responder Network Authority is a nationwide Cellular Network enabling First Responders to communicate across jurisdictions, for redundancy to ensure resilience and reduce impact of Network Congestion their first met, First Responders have priority on dedicated Public Safety spectrum on behalf of the International Association of fire chiefs, Congress Continues to port first met. Safe, is mentioned by others, the hs Advisory Group or stakeholders to develop better technologies in the process for coordination of Communication Systems, safe, trains First Responders and Emergency Communications, coordinates and encourages interoperability, the first vice chair, great work ive seen firsthand on behalf of the isc, ive asked to continue to support infra structure Security Agency and its support of safe calm. State Homeland Security program and urban Areas Security Initiative grants is crucial to improving emergency communication. These grants incentivize First Responders across her addictions to collaborate before, during and after an incident in coordination reducing confusion and saves lives. Our members he used this funding to improve Regional Radio interoperability and develop resilient communication. Urging congress to continue to support strong funding. Assistance to firefighter grants and safer grants are used for equipment training and staff, grants are key to Public Safety communications especially since 50 of our department lack of portable radios to equip. Safer grants are used to address staffing shortages by all manner. Asking congress to fully fund clients which are critical to fire service. Great progress has been made in Emergency Communications, there is room for improvement. Many members are mentioning 911 calls from jurisdictions improperly routed, resulting in significant delays. We should be able to do better in an emergency and highlights the need for 911 infrastructure with other commercially available technology. A member of the public and safety nextgeneration 911 coalition, the collision request Congress Legislation public, 15 billing dollar nexgen 911 package in the reconciliation package. Availability of spectrum for Public Safety operations is critically important, 4. 9 was set aside for Public Safety after 9 11. The use includes hosting missioncritical broadband network, who relied on the assessment technologies become more widely used. Last october fcc issued an order to set up a system of state licenses to make 4. 9 gigahertz available to commercial entities september 30 this year, fcc rescinded that and about the a notice on Public Safety and nonPublic Safety use. Support the decision to rescind the framework of state licenses. Public safety uses six gigahertz for Communications Systems and Radio Communications in rural areas across the United States. Urging congress to monitor proceedings to protect critical Public Safety medications and a six gigahertz. In conclusion, Public Safety Emergency Response perhaps with no High Expectations are important for getting it right. Admittedly after 9 11 we recognize challenges were people based and we recognize the successes weve experienced 9 11 were also because of the people and relationships we performed. We wouldnt be here today without the spirit of working together and the foundations and retired fire chief and past president , jeff johnson instrumental launching efforts that continued today and relationships to Public Safety forms across the country. The maintenance of these relationships may be the biggest single success the federal government has done and we thank you. I think the subcommittee for all its done to improve communications in the 20 years since 9 11. Ive got to think my family and the support team, we look forward to continuing to work up a subcommittee and address continued Communications Means of Public Safety, thank you very much. Thank you so much for your testimony, the chair recognizes the sheriff from Putnam County to summarize his statements for five minutes. Thank you for being with us today thank you for the opportunity to testify before the committee today. As i sheriff, my office faces unique challenges to communicate with Emergency Service providers in the field. It is my pleasure to be with you here today share some of the obstacles we face while we Work Together to ensure our nation is best to equipped for life safety issues. I want to talk about Emergency Communications post 9 11 to offer a rural perspective for members of the subcommittee. Our nation has seen significant changes to the way First Responders communicate, there are still significant gaps and lapses in Coverage Areas. For a little background, Putnam County is northeast florida situated approximately 60 miles south of jacksonville and north of the beach. Our community and county is approximately 827 square miles with a population near 75000. Putnam county is primarily farmland and cash the county is constrained in the county of economic concern by legislature presented significant charges for First Responders, not the least of which is communication and refugee systems. Emergency services in rural areas look significantly different than urban counterparts, many things we do look the same, we have the same statutes and same standards with similar missions. What is the contrast is how we communicate. Local partners in the 258 systems more Putnam County is an outlier and that we currently use antiquated radio system based on Technology Developed during the second world war. Current Communications Platform is an analog radio system primarily from decommissioning systems donated from other areas destined otherwise for a landfill. This is no ability to communicate with counterparts frequently work with or allow. Imagine a Law Enforcement officer and paramedic responding to a Domestic Violence call in a rural area, 25 to 30 minutes from your current location. When you arrive, you think the victim is conscious with a large laceration above the eye. Based on description of injuries, we suspect an internal injury as well. Suspect ran into a forested area behind president s and try to reach the Emergency Communication Center through radio to request expedited response from ems and backup but no response. You attempt to use your cell phone to call but no luck. Frustrated, no choice but to leave the victim into position while you go to your patrol car to use your more powerful radio, dispatchers can hear you but your transmission filled with static and unintelligible at times. Fortunately dispatcher has the foresight to send another deputy to assist but unfortunately another 20 minutes before they arrive. It is a time delay, she suffered a stroke and loses her ability to speak and testified against this. In 2013 fcc issued a mandate to require systems for decreasing wavelength from 25 to 12 to free up additional frequencies. This was a greatly reduced ability to transmit radio traffic especially in buildings or isolated areas. Post 9 11 funding was requested immediately following the attacks seems to have waned significantly. For Rural Communities running significant in Emergency Communications receiving final technology timely manner. Larger communities have Product Communications and ability to leverage money from diverse socioeconomic population. Rural communities lack that advantage. Majority of residents and communities rely on fixed incomes and do not have diversity of Economic Growth seen in areas such as st. Johns or orange county. At the same time, communities are not so economically stagnant that we receive an overabundance of client funding simply, we are in financial stranglehold to choose to have Emergency Responders meeting the needs of the community but the potential to lose signal with communications or update technology and communications and not have people to respond to the emergency call. Currently, we are still operating on the operability network, more uptodate mutual aid model in counterparts this Technology Developed Public Safety counterparts bringing past channels together creating a bridge that allows radio. The immediate post 9 11, a significant interoperability leading to the development. Focused on maintaining the system and others like it has been grinder to a halt based on mutual aid channels intervening to lack of maintenance and failure of user agencies to remain proficient in the operation. It has limitations, the most obvious of which users inability to run outside of their Agency Coverage area. In these strategies among regional Communications Systems with independent dispatch centers. Sharing these systems to enable the users to run freely within their Coverage Area reducing space on shared infrastructure while still maintaining autonomy of independent dispatch centers. Regional malls are not new, they are well established medications nation wide. This creates additional, this is a walk around allowing transmitters to be optimized for additional coverage which isnt currently allowed because the fec is transmitted to not transmitted outside the Coverage Area. This can produce optimizing versus i need to build additional transmitters accordingly. Im not aware of current agreements, we have the ability to use existing infrastructure through partnering with internet Service Providers allowing releasing of power space in efforts excuse me but time has expired, a couple of minutes to go in during the questioning from the members, if there is something in your Opening Statement that you want to share, use the opportunity to do that. We want to thank you for joining us today and i want to thank our witnesses for your testimony. I would remind the subcommittee we will each have five minutes to question the panel i now recognize myself for questions. Chief, you said having been on the ground during 9 11, he said something to the effect of you are keenly aware of conditions on the ground that day and we know one of the major challenges was interoperability. Could you talk a bit more what it was like on the ground that day 9 11, paint a picture of improvements we made but still need to make. Sure, thank you for the question. I responded to the fema contracts around the nation to form search and rescue teams, seattle Fire Department is one of the teams so we responded, we were in what was the second round and it was a life altering experience so site, sounds, smells, nothing ive seen since her had never seen before. Like you, i was coming off duty that morning and saw the news off the tv and it was life altering. When we responded to new york, one challenges even as our teams, we had medications. They didnt integrate to the Public Safety responders, police, fire, emts so we had to make extensive use of runners fly by wire Communications Networks to do the best we could at the time. Thankfully like i mentioned in my testimony, there were relationships already established so at least we had some kind of idea who we should reach out to our talk to. Talking with colleagues in counterparts at the washington d. C. Aspects of 9 11, kind of the same things. They tried to pass everything and all of a sudden everybody was talking to everybody and nobody could talk so probably the biggest success was bringing all of the efforts together under what was eventually dhs. A couple of key models to identify ways to improve governance, equipment, operating procedures, training and exercises through those grant funds accordingly, and each of those areas, what we have been able to do since, Public Safety across the United States has been able to do a much better job coordinating as far as purchases. What are weakening . How should we talk . Language, the example we always use between police and fire and im sure you know how debate go between police and fire, if the military says cover me or firefighter and police says cover me, he will get different responses for what that means. Whether its equipment or grounds being pulled out so we worked on all of those aspects. First nets, safe, technology is coming but we didnt get into that position september 10, it took a long time to get into pickle and it will continue to take time to get out of it. Thank you so much for that. Captain meyer, you talk in your Opening Statement in the usefulness of that platform, what would you say are some additional things that can be done to improve the platform . The most important things theyve done for us can you hear me okay . My apologies for the earlier technical difficulties but we have to talk about resiliency of the network and make sure the build out, i think it is 95 complete across the United States, national Public Safety broadband power in the hands of First Responders, who want to make sure the legacy equipment towers are built to standards to use for Public Safety Radio Systems, the Power Systems and the diversity of the past to connect the networks together is built to that same standard so we see it with first met, we have a transparency platform with at t where i can see as a First Responder network how things are going and can see if there are outages or impairments heres the thing, as First Responders, we have to anticipate this, we do this all the time including outages not just related to first met, we plan for the responses during the events as well as recovery so we know first net is working on this, i have experiences as part of the Safety Advisory Committee for many years, served as vice chair, proud to say im part of the effort weve seen through first met authority and hardworking people. Also think about deployable space for that, for the 100 deploys both ready to go, prestaged like they did in d. C. And in michigan like in florida and new orleans. These are things we have to be ready for. From florida for your questions. Thank you, chairwoman. At this question is going to be for just weighing in yes or no and then elaborate a little bit. As you know there was cybersecurity advice across the regions you all have worked in one capacity or another to assist state and local government to help mitigate Cyber Threats so my question to you is have you had any engagement with the representative regarding Cybersecurity Services and if so, hows that engagement been beneficial and how could it be improved . I will start with you, sheriff. My office hasnt had any personal engagement. We do have even for the rural county a very robust response team, cyber threat teams. Captain meyer. Thank you, congresswoman. The short answer, to expand upon that for many years i was the chair of funding and took into account building these networks from the bottom up and in fact in building those in they could go out and help identify gaps where the Technology Communications are. We had the privilege to meet with the Deputy Director and had some great outcomes from that. Being from the home of amazon and microsoft, one of the things we started to do in working is to stir to foster some of those publicprivate partnerships. What is some of the expertise and how can we bring the talent together to start addressing Public Safety needs. Excellent. Sheriff, as you know, when we talked about this before about 60 million americans were one in five americans live in Rural America in fact 97 of all of america is rural. So, knowing that, and you representing a rural community, can you talk about what it would cost your department to upgrade your radio system . Yes, absolutely. So, we are actually in the process of attempting to update the Radio Systems. The long and short of it is it would cost about seven to 8 million to upgrade our radio system and existing infrastructure, so we are in the position that we can buy a car or put gas in it so to speak. I know we are going to dig into a lot of the nittygritty systems that sell some of the programs but something that constantly gets overlooked i believe is the personal human side of what can happen when the Radio Systems are going down or they dont work. Have you ever, or anyone in your department, had a situation where an officer was put in danger or there was a loss of life due to a lack of communication . Fortunately, we have not had a loss of life but in the short period of time we have situations where the crews and deputies were placed in grave harm or peril because of a lack of ability to communicate with the Regional Communications center. Excellent. Ive got about 20 seconds left, so im going to open it up to all of the witnesses. I think it will probably be hit on today but yes or no in my ten seconds, youve experienced in your department to put potentially tragic situations or tragic situation due to a lack of communication. The chief . Theres many examples in the fire service where radio failure have led to fatalities and lots of reports are offering that. Captain meyer. Yes, we had an incident where the departments could not talk to each other and it created a much more dangerous terrible situation that could have been avoided with better communications. I appreciate that. With that, i would yield back, madame chairwoman. Thank you. The chair will now recognize other members for questions they may wish to ask. In accordance with the guidelines laid out by the chair man and at the Ranking Member in the february 3rd colloquy, i well recognize members in order of seniority alternating between majority and minority. Members are also reminded to unmute themselves when recognized for questioning. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, Sheila Jackson lee. I know you were on earlier. If ms. Jackson lee is still with us. Okay. The chair well now recognize the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Payne, for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for having this very timely hearing. Very pleased to hear the discussion earlier in the beginning of the hearing with mention of hr 615 into the Interoperable Communications act which i offered that legislation, so im very proud of that and also shepherded the first net operation and dhs, so its good to hear all of that functioning and active here in the homeland. Good to see you again. We miss you in jersey, but its wonderful that youve landed in washington. So, access to Emergency Alerts and calls are necessary for every american, no matter the economic background or ability. What systems or initiatives does the agency have in place to ensure that all residents receive Emergency Alerts and information . Congressman payne, thank you for the question. Here in the district we do have a diverse socioeconomic resident population, and we need to see that certainly in the response to the pandemic, but also with some of the disasters and emergencies that weve experienced, so in addition to some of the tools ive mentioned in my Opening Statements, we employ a multifaceted and multimodal approach to the information i mentioned on the dc campaign, which will go to the cell phones via text or email and also to the Mayors Office and many of our communitybased organizations to the doortodoor canvassing and reaching the residence particularly with seven or eight new in particular. And we also try to reach the residence by getting them to also sign up for some of our telephone notifications, so for the residents that dont have cell phones, for example, we can through the public messaging campaigns working with the Mayors Office we are able to reach them in that way so we can make calls to them. Thank you. In 2018, a missile alert was accidentally issued via the Emergency Alert system. This caused widespread concern. How can we ensure that such accidents never happen again and are there current challenges with the Emergency Alert system . That work that was sent out did reverberate across the country. [inaudible] theres a lot of the witnesses on the line. So, what we did here in my agency actually there were alerts on behalf of the district and so we actually looked across the processes to ensure that the type of message wouldnt go out, so we did have a layered approach to not only drafting the message but also looking at where we are doing it. I mentioned the challenges. Its not an accurate technology, sometimes its maryland, virginia or surrounding counties that can also be a challenge. But we do have a layered process once they hit, that has been looked at by several individuals before we actually put out to the public. Thank you for the responses and i will yield back the balance of my time. The gentle man yields back. Thank you. The chair recognizes now the gentle man from louisiana for five minutes. I think my friend and colleague is a chairwoman and the Ranking Member for holding this hearing today, and i think the Law Enforcement and First Responders for being here today. I am concerned about continued inductors to defund the police. As it relates to todays topic, communications and the effectiveness thereof, it is an example in austin texas the Police Department was defunded to the tune of 150 million, that is about a third of the budget facing quite a crisis in fact its now reporting that they are not going to respond to many calls. Theyve advised the citizens to dial 311 for any complaints including burglaries, suspicious vehicles and people, public disturbances, and let me clarify that from the website, when you dial 311, your call is answered by friendly knowledgeable ambassador. Our ambassador is always ready to answer any questions or assist you with any issue you have regarding the citys departments or services. A 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. You dial 311 and you can get and ambassador. Now let me just say when americans say they are in a bind and feel like they need to call 911, they need to be sure that we, the people, need to be certain that there is a Police Officer on the other end of that phone. And also, an example that is quite startling because it is happening across the country in different ways. After reviewing the testimonies today, there was a common theme. Every witness talks about the need for additional resources. So, the answer to improving the Emergency Response efforts including communications and interoperability across the department jurisdictional player ready has never been to withdraw resources from the First Responders and as a former cop, i can assure the country that defunding the police is the greatest threat to the nations ability to respond to emergencies. Im going to ask you a question and im going to call you the most because it is the coolest name thats come through the committee in quite some time. According to the postkatrina fcc report, more than a thousand sites were knocked out and it goes on to say in number of outages had a huge impact. Your county is susceptible and i have firsthand experience in the challenges of the First Responders that the cops face when dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane and communications. Could you please explain to the committee how the challenge or the Communications Interoperability gap and now a county sheriff like yourself would respond to the challenges and how that might move to defund the police and i will yield the balance of my time to answer that question. Thank you, representative. That is an excellent question. Yes, the hurricanes are one of the bigger threats that face the Communications Infrastructure systems. In fact that ties directly back into my testimony. When we talk about a remedial Communication System, we are in the process of negotiating with our sister county to the east to potentially develop a Regional Communications center which would allow those to tie into the system were rather us to tie into their system to build additional redundancies in the event that we have some type of a catastrophic barrier that would allow those entities to continue to operate while still depending on the same common system if that makes sense. Yes, that makes sense to me and madame chair, i cannot see the clock. Thank you for the clarification. Sheriff, could you continue to talk about the challenge thats a legitimate concern that caused americans to have this debate and respond from your perspective to the attempt to defend the Police Across the country . Your time is expired but the witness may answer the question. Thank you, madam chair. Living in rural northeast florida, we dont even have those discussions here. Law enforcement is almost unilaterally protected by the citizens and we are very grateful for that. My heart goes out to my brothers and sisters in blue that are experiencing some of those devastating blows to their departments and certainly even more so to the residents that are suffering at the hands of the attempt to Defund Police right now. It is unamerican in my opinion and should not be tolerated. The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from texas, ms. Jackson lee for five minutes. Im trying to unmute. We can hear you now. Thank you. [inaudible] ms. Jackson lee, you are on two different screens. If we could eliminate them, there is feedback and i will give you a couple seconds to do that. Thats better. Go right ahead. First of all, thank you. [inaudible] ms. Jackson lee, we are still having some Communications Issues. We are going to come back to you. The chair will now recognize the gentlewoman from new jersey for five minutes. Thank you, madam chairwoman and thank you to the witnesses. I havent had a chance to be here for the entire thing because i was double booked, but i am very much concerned about this issue. One thing you all have in common is the vulnerability of being hacked by cyber criminals. Standard Communication Systems are vulnerable where the information can be intercepted and copied and a hacker [inaudible] let me ask you, what are some of your Cyber Security concerns and do you feel as though dhs has been as supportive as it needs to be with this mission . Thank you, congresswoman. That is the best question that ive had related to cyber and what keeps me up at night. It is a serious threat and a serious consideration we put this digital data and personal information, all of this information that is so central to criminal justice, out on the internet and all these other places and people are hacking it. It is a danger. These need to be closed systems with controls that have to do with management and understanding the physical layers of the network where thee logical layers of the network. Into those are the things that are built into the systems out there. And we look at some of the work through dhs and all of those agencies and we talk about the risk identification, whether it is access data those capabilities. Putting it all together for us, we have responded and recovered. Thats how we do things and those are the best systems but remember the most important thing is our employees and the people that work for us. We have to do that for training and make sure that they have the Information Available to say dont respond to that. Its been important for us. Thank you. We want to make sure we get whatever support we need from dhs and thank you, maam. With Law Enforcement across the country and regarding the hyperbole and protection of our citizens. I now have a question for Doctor Rodriguez. The attack that took place january 6th was unexpected and certainly was unacceptable. I personally said lets go to the capital because we will be safe there and low and behold, that was the worst place we could have been. So, i want to ask you could you please describe the current Communications Operations in the capital and detail what systems worked on january 6th, what systems caused challenges and where we are in fixing those. Thank you. Thank you, congresswoman. As i mentioned in my Opening Statements, the first system did work reliably and consistently on january 6th, which i think did assist our First Responders and the Capital Police in doing what they needed to do to clear the capital of the insurrectionists. I will mention, there are also the dc Radio Systems did work well as well on the sixth. We do continue to look for ways that we can better partner with our federal counterparts and Capital Police in order to make sure there is that Interoperable Communications with our federal partners because often times with events posted in the nations capital, we do need to make sure that we are able to communicate quickly as we are called on to support them in many instances. Thank you, Doctor Rodriguez. Madame chair, how much time do i have . The gentlewomans time is expired. Doctor rodriguez raised something for me that was quite significant, and that is washington was ready and able to respond in a timely manner that it knew it needed to respond, so the questions that still need to be answered is why were werent we proactively prepared. A. Of the gentlewoman yields back at the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from iowa for five minutes. Thank you madame chair and to all of the witnesses and First Responders, firefighters, sheriffs, all of you that are here with us today. Its greatly appreciated the work that you do. You mentioned your response to hurricanes and how that affects you. Others how it affects your region. In iowa we dont get hurricanes unless they are called to do ratios that are in land hurricanes. Some have talked about resiliency, and ive talked about the system and using cellular communication, but i can tell you that here in central iowa it affected to some of the larger cities and cellular towers and communication was unavailable. As a state senator, i put through legislation for broadband. The governor just put through 100 million to broadband, so my question, and Doctor Rodriguez maybe you can answer this where the sheriff can answer showed we have, in order to have resiliency, should we not have also redundancy of Communication Systems because the same natural or unnatural disaster is not going to affect those areas and this leads to the cybersecurity arena as well. Whats the possibility of satellites being taken out in outer space, what does that do to the Communication System. We have seen u. S. Companies purchased by the Chinese Communist party, and if the Chinese Communist party purchases a system or as it is being developed in the challenges, i think all of these are important as we develop a Communication System and strategy and hopefully we will see that in this upcoming report. So, Doctor Rodriguez if you could answer that question briefly, it would be greatly appreciated. I will comment after you if thats alright. Certainly. Thats an excellent question. I think one of the points is the move out that coincidentally is almost complete in Putnam County and we are in the final stages of the completion. One of the things that makes it so attractive is the additional layer of redundancy. Above and beyond the radio system that allows it to serve as an adjunct to the traditional radio system and even allows us to increase what they would normally transmit over a Cellular Network. With that in mind its to build up some type of infrastructure to provide some type of a catastrophic hurricane or storm and that is something that was taken into consideration in the design and engineering phase. So certainly the credit goes to them and anyone that had an end in that. Before you answer weve recently seen with the outage of facebook we know that these types of redundancies are necessary because one communication avenue may be susceptible. So if you could expand upon that and thank you again for your testimony. It really develops the plan based on the framework, the primary radio system, the alternative that is the cell system, the contingencies and emergency worst Case Scenario so we followed that framework for the Communications Ecosystem here and certainly with the region we plan to train for that. At the National Level you talk about the state actors and is the National Government and National Resiliency particularly as part of its continuity of the economy framework. Its necessary for state and local authorities to be part of that process thank you for indulging them to answer the questions despite my time having expired and i will yield back. The chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from texas, ms. Jackson lee for five minutes. Thank you madame chair, can you all hear me now . I could have a sense of humor about operating on two or three or four devices trying to get into this hearing, but i was hearing it and it is important, so again i want to thank you for your leadership and we have a very important combination of Police Departments and Fire Departments in the chair and Ranking Member. I support both in terms of the vital work that they do coming from texas and houston into being in the eye of disasters. I was in the United States capitol capital on 9 11. I was told by then Capital Police the first places we heard to get out and run as we sue them saw them doing their job and it was well known that the first level of information was not any information and it was the Energy Capital of the world. So, i first hand understand clearly contrary to my dear friend from louisiana, we support police with funding and understand there are issues that would involve the policing act but we are supportive of the basic infrastructure of Law Enforcement in this nation and that is all americans who see themselves to the authority of Law Enforcement and First Responders, Fire Departments as they do their job. Its all about infrastructure and about the connectedness that you need to communicate. We were so much reminded of what happened with the firefighters, heroic running up the stairs and how different systems couldnt communicate. I understand from the 1960s to 1970s infrastructure. Give us your point of what we need to do immediately. There is a funding question nanotechnology question, but give it to me in a poignant way so that we can end this in 2021 that we have been dealing with for this period of time and i would be delighted to have the witnesses answer these questions if they will. And then to call on others that could answer. Thank you. You mentioned of the technology but i cant emphasize enough the aspect with hurricane harvey, the statewide interoperability partner and who works at the houston Fire Department by contacting them, i was able to find out who i needed to talk to to find out and facilitate the infrastructure. Whats working, whats not, how can we help you. The support of the Advisory Committee are two great examples where you are bringing us together to make those connections and relationships so that when disaster does come, we know who to contact on the ground. So, what is your assessment of the work that we can do for Law Enforcement and the connectivity that you need . And speaking of the connectivity with First Responders such as with Fire Departments. Go ahead. I can hear you now. Madame chairwoman, thank you for giving me the chance to talk about this. One of the most important things talked about was the Communications Planning process and that is dhs has been a leader on this and continues funding the support served that are truly interoperable. As you stated we have to talk to the police and also Public Safety people that support us. Those relationships are the most important things to move forward. They dont take out the Communication Systems. We work around those. The gentlewomans time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas for five minutes. Thank you madame chair and i think the Ranking Member as well. Im very appreciative that we have such outstanding witnesses to share intelligence with us. The success of what we are attempting to accomplish is a great benefit in the interoperability as it relates to when katrina hit and how it relates to the general public because there are times when these means of communications are oversaturated into that oversaturation without an opportunity to ascertain what they say these issues are, so im interested in hearing some sense of how we are interconnecting with interoperability as it relates to the general public. How do we phase the public into this because im being called upon and cant get through to the people that need to know. Thank you very much, congressman greene, for the question and i think its important to look at the public as part of a larger Emergency Communications ecosystem. We try to reach the public as a city and actually as a region, we do have a regional watch and a Notification Team that sits in the district that will alert the National Capital region residents of which there are nearly 6 million that include the district and surrounding counties, so we can reach them and also they need to know how to reach us if there are issues that they need to bring any emergencies or disasters where they are reporting suspicious activities or letting us know that a road is closed or a Traffic Accident has happened, so we do a lot of communication with the public to make sure they know how to sign up for alerts and get authorities and communicate with us as well. Let me share an additional concern when we have hurricanes here in houston i got a lot of calls from my office about powerlines that are down out in the street and bouncing around and the public needs to get help and get somebody out and take care of these wires, so theres an additional reason that came to mind when i was called to my attention. That poses a significant challenge i think that the Early Warning is key because there is that knowledge from the house forms that typically theres some infrastructure failures there. Prior to the impact of the actual storms of the residence can protect the measures in place and evacuate the areas not unlike any other place we use a multifaceted approach when it comes to communication and rely heavily on social media and also a messaging system but there needs to be some significant work that is done as far as building redundancy and resiliency so that they function even when conditions are less than optimal. I attribute my success in life because of some advice that he gave me. I want to let you know how much i appreciate the persons in Law Enforcement. Thank you madame chair again for your advice that youve given us as weve gone through this process as well. We do have time for a second round of questioning if the members desire. I want to thank the witnesses for the outstanding job and information that youve given us today. I will begin with myself. One of the things i said in my Opening Statement is members of congress have an Important Role to play. We have an Important Role to play and today we are here to assess our progress over the last 20 years to ensure the First Responders and Emergency Management personnel have the resources to effectively respond to tragedies and to protect human life and the american people. Thank you for staying focused on that goal. We have a vicious attack like we saw on 9 11 to ever happen to us again. Thats not a political goal. That should be everybodys goal, so i want to thank you for what youve added to the conversation and the information youve given as members of congress that were laser focused on making sure that you have the resources that you need. Part of that of course is the dhs grants and i would like to ask all of the witnesses how has the dhs prepared the grant to help further develop your Communication Strategies . Id like to ask the witnesses and we will start with you. I appreciate the question, congresswoman. It is an essential part of our ability to be interoperable. Since 2003, the National Capital region has received about 1. 2 billion of preparedness grants which most has been spent to upgrade Radio Systems to make them more interoperable. There are a lot of local budgets that are impacted by having to upgrade Radio Systems every year and then we do a larger placement of the regional cash every ten years. So that cost is about 10 million per year to do upgrades to the system. The other challenge that we have and we appreciate the subcommittees assistance for what we have to spend the grant on and as we enter a period we have to be very flexible the mandatory minimums which account for about 30 of the grants that all of the regions get and kind of put these limits on what it is we can spend when we need to remain flexible and nimble for the jurisdictions. Thank you very much. The grants have been phenomenal and in fact theyve been absolutely essential for our region. The state, local, level. But additionally theyve helped us as far as training and exercises because of the equipment is only as good as your ability to know what youre using. Over the years we had multiple Training Exercise scenarios where we got to use the training equipment and practice talking to each other before the big disaster and then in the usage weve been able to use the grounds to work on policy. Of the policy, the equipment, the usage and the committees its all got to Work Together and the grants have been instrumental in making that happen certainly in our region and many like ours. I grew up in the rural part of Jackson Valley and im sure you are familiar with that. The challenges may be different and that the amount may be different but youve responded to the same calls so the level of service that youve expected to give is the same. Can you talk about the importance in your area . Certainly come and thank you again, madame chair. Typically we see with regards to the monies as they are typically funded towards i understand the importance of protecting the infrastructure and some of the assets that we have are those more populous areas. They are often overlooked or cannot meet the demands of the reporting requirements that other grants placed on us. Thank you and last but not least, captain meyer. It is essential to help us move forward since 9 11 and while the funding has been reduced, its stabilized less in the years. We would ask that we continue funding that moving forward and to align with what you said earlier. [inaudible] with the interoperable committee we have seen our amount of fat shrink, but we have addressed more training issues but heres the thing we are able to give the best direction possible to avoid those with some of the communication practices. Thank you for supporting us on that. Thank you so much. The chair recognizes the Ranking Member for five minutes. Thank you madame chairwoman and you hit on one of the issue is i really wanted to bring to light and discuss today which is the challenges that some of the communities had with these grants from a number of vantage points one being that they dont meet the requirement in the county for example. 400 people over the threshold for low population areas so because of that they have the same struggles but that person over the limit has excluded them from a number of grants putting them in a pile to compete with jacksonville or orlando or miami. I went through about 28 pages and it looks like Putnam County and several of the Rural Communities as mentioned earlier, one in five americans lived in Rural America and when you look at that list of available dhs grants, communities and Rural Communities only are eligible to apply to about ten to 15 of those. What can we be doing to open that to cover more of the urban areas and also the Rural Communities . I will say this as a qualifier, certainly when it comes to grants and requirements, the need for accountability whenever the managing organization like mine, where we have 256 fulltime employees they have a staff into several thousand people and perhaps an entire floor and building dedicated to management of grants. Unfortunately, those are just resources we do not have available to us and like we said a few minutes ago because of the quagmire that we are pleased in that awkward stage where we are now. Thank you, sheriff and this question is for chief blumberg. In your testimony you had highlighted that they had been critical to improving interoperability. If you also highlighted how they are one of the first organizations to represent from Public Safety associations. All the way up to management when discussing things like the national Emergency Communications plan and as a caveat from your perspective do you think that Rural America is represented accurately and adequately in these discussions when you are building this out . Absolutely. First response is only effective insomuch as the secondary is able to sustain the events. The public works director in Gainesville Florida represents public works throughout the United States recognizing when we talk about interoperability issues and sustaining the response if you want to keep the roads open how are we going to be able to communicate in that dialogue. We strive to maintain a Diverse Group as far as again federal, state, local people brought together and responders are brought together not just big cities. Theres a lot of small areas brought together because one of the things we find at the end of the day so many of these are a number of scaling. You dont have to go too far outside for the west coast before you get into some very rural areas. Again, the funding and support the federal government has gotten were put forth on helping us facilitate his relationships is amazing as far as bringing us together and letting us work our problems out. Hopefully that answers the question. This is important and every one of the congressional districts and we want to make sure we are working effectively and efficiently to deliver real solutions. I want to thank the Ranking Member and i look forward to continuing the work with you and other members to make sure that we are being responsive to the needs of all of america particularly looking at grand eligibility any additional members that would like to ask questions, the chair recognizes ms. Jackson lee for five minutes. [inaudible] [inaudible] obviously january 6th was [inaudible] but its to the coordination question that i am concerned with. I want to ask the question may be again dealing with first met you stated ultimately this collaboration and allowed them to respond in the process working to acquire the selfsufficiency in the district and communication. I know that you might not poignantly be able to comment, but i do understand they were speaking about some operability and its important that the team and district of columbia can all communicate with the capitol capitalpolice and other federal authorities. [inaudible] thank you very much. You have some Communications Issues, but i hope Doctor Rodriguez was able to hear enough to respond to your question. Thank you for the question and certainly during january 6th as mentioned did operate consistently and reliably. We were not on first met and any questions about getting them on or about the plan is to do that i would have to refer to the Capital Police. Less than three weeks ago there was a lot of concern over the september 18th protests that were coming to the district and i know a lot of security was put up giving a very extensive interagency effort to make sure that both state and Law Enforcement agencies were on the same page. For the interoperability we learned a lot from january 6th all of the components including the Capital Police have first met in a place where [inaudible] its very important and any effort that drives us towards greater interoperability. Thank you madam chair i will yield back with that i want to thank all of the witnesses for your invaluable testimony and your Service Every day and i want to thank the members for their questions. I would now like to submit a statement for the record the members, we submit this statement for the record. Members of the subcommittee have additional questions for the witnesses and we ask that you respond in writing to these questions. Under committee rules, the record shall be kept open for ten