On Tuesday, March 18th, Congressman Mike Ross (AR) introduced the Rural Fire Department Equipment Priority Act of 2003 (H.R. 1311). Senator Blanche Lincoln (AR) also introduced the legislation in the Senate (S. 641).
Obtaining adequate funding to purchase equipment is a problem many fire departments are constantly faced with, especially those in rural communities. In order to ease this burden many rural departments turn to the Federal Excess Personal Property Program (FEPP). This program, administered by the United States Forest Service, loans excess federal equipment from various agencies to these fire departments. The type of equipment most often needed is excess property from the Department of Defense, but rural fire departments are often given a lower priority than other groups competing for this equipment. The legislation would place rural fire departments at a priority level at least equal to that given to entities within the Department of Defense.
On Tuesday, March 25th, Congresswoman Jane Harman (CA) and Congressman Curt Weldon (PA) reintroduced the Homeland Emergency Response Operations (HERO) Act (H.R. 1425). The legislation is intended to ensure our nation’s first responders have greater access to shared broadcast frequencies for interoperable radio communications.
Radio frequency spectrum is a limited resource used by all forms of wireless communications, including cellular phones, pagers, and radio and television broadcast. Because of the scarcity of unused spectrum, first responders are not able to fully utilize interoperable communications equipment that would let them communicate with each other. In 1997, Congress set a deadline of December 31, 2006 for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide public safety agencies sole access to the broadcast spectrum. Congress conditioned transfer to public safety agencies on digital television rollout reaching 85% of American households. At present, only one percent of households have digital television. The HERO Act will remove this threshold requirement.
Courtesy of the Congressional Fire Service Institute
