NENA Members Urged to Lobby on NG-911 Money Separate From Stalled Spectrum Bill
George Kelemen, Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies executive director, advised National Emergency Number Association members Monday to distinguish between the general push for Congress to appropriate $15 billion for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and existing legislative vehicles for allocating…
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that funding when they meet this week with Capitol Hill offices. Backers of the House Commerce Committee-cleared Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565), which would use some future auction proceeds to pay up to $14.8 billion for NG-911, haven't advanced the measure amid stalled negotiations on a broader spectrum legislative package (see 2312280044). Some offices, particularly Senate Republicans, are likely to say HR-3565 “‘is dead,’ and as a legislative vehicle it may very well be dead,” Kelemen said during NENA’s conference in Pentagon City, Virginia. “It’s still technically … a live bill,” and the hope is that lawmakers will “take all of the important parts of” the bill dealing with NG-911 and put them in "a different vehicle sometime this year and let’s hope they get it all done.” The NG-911 language in HR-3565, which mirrors an aborted spectrum legislative deal leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees agreed to in December 2022 (see 2212190069), is “what we’re looking for and that’s what we’d like to see in whatever vehicle eventually moves,” Kelemen said. NENA members will also lobby lawmakers’ offices on the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-6319) and similar Enhancing First Response Act (S-3556), both of which would reclassify public safety call-takers and dispatchers as a protective service.