The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCC), the Major County Sheriffs' Association (MCSA), the National Association of Counties (NACo), the National League of Cities (NLC), and the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) have given their support to the DTV transition bill introduced by Senator McCain.

The June 14,2005
press release states:

"We applaud today's introduction of the 'Spectrum Availability for Emergency-Response and Law-Enforcement to Improve Vital Emergency Services' (Save Lives Act of 2005). This important legislation is critical to meet the requirements of our nation's first responders."

The funding section of the bill opens up the auction proceeds for the funding of communications needs nationwide. Section 5 states,

"Authorization of Appropriations. - To the extent that proceeds from the auction of licenses for recovered analog spectrum under section 309(j)(14) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 309(j)(14)) are available and exceed the amount required to carry out the program described in section 4, there are authorized to be appropriated from such proceeds such sums as are available to fund the grant program established under this section."

The estimates of the funding that this may provide will be interesting to see. Hope they will be enough to cover interoperability nationwide.