There has been some buzz about a House subcommittee hearing scheduled for Wednesday of this week on the subject of “resilient communications.” While the term might broadly include Amateur Radio the focus of the hearing is more specific. Here is the list of invited witnesses and a brief description from Chairman Gus Bilirakis. If the name Bilirakis sounds familiar it is probably because his father, Mike Bilirakis, was a good friend of Amateur Radio and the ARRL prior to his retirement from Congress.

There has been some speculation as to whether this hearing might be an opportunity to further our CC&R objectives. The short answer is no, because the FCC study was reported to a different committee. However, the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications is of some potential importance to us anyway, in the broader contest of emergency communications.

John Chwat reports that:

• The DHS witness has been asked by Chairman Bilirakis(R-FL) to testify specifically on Executive Order 13618 of the President issued two months ago on National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions.
• The FCC and other witnesses will be asked to address the recent storm impacts in the District of Columbia, as well as issues relating to 911. Ed said the Chairman was most concerned by the inability of the public in these types of natural (storm) disasters to connect to 911.

73,

Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

Wednesday, September 12

Subcommittee Hearing: Resilient Communications: Current Challenges and Future Advancements

2 p.m. on Wednesday, September 12 in 311 Cannon House Office Building

Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Chairman

Invited Witnesses Include:

Panel I

Ms. Bobbie Stempfley

Deputy Assistant Secretary

Office of Cybersecurity and Communications U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Mr. David Turetsky

Chief

Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Federal Communications Commission

Panel II

Mr. Brian Fontes

Chief Executive Officer

National Emergency Number Association

Mr. Kyle Malady

Senior Vice President

Verizon

Mr. Terry Hall

President

APCO International

Chairman Bilirakis on the hearing: "We learned many important lessons about the need for resilient communications from the September 11th terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.  While great progress has been made since those disasters, the 9-1-1 outages in the National Capital Region after the recent derecho highlight significant challenges that remain.  This hearing will provide Subcommittee Members an opportunity to examine efforts to enhance the resiliency of our communications capabilities, including the implementation of Executive Order 13618, the allocation of the D Block to public safety, and efforts to implement next generation 9-1-1."