At a July 10 press briefing in Baghdad, Iraq, U.S. Army Major General William McCoy provided an update on the progress that has been made towards restoring key Iraqi infrastructure, noting the installment of the Advanced First Responder Network, a high-tech data and voice communications system linking police, fire and emergency services across 14 provinces.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... first responders throughout the United States still have do not have the ability to reliably and effectively communicate with each other, and there remains no national strategy to establish a nationwide interoperable emergency communications network.

Furthermore, the DHS's "National Interoperability Baseline Survey" has yet to get off the ground (it's more than a year behind schedule now), and the scoop out of Washington is that DHS just missed a deadline to report to Congress on how to meet public safety communication needs, like interoperability. In fact, Communications Daily reports that DHS officials were unable to comment on the matter because they'd never even heard of the study, which was required under the Intelligence Reform Act.

Needless to say, these developments (or lack thereof) don't bode well for America's first responders and the communities they protect.

In response to the lack of progress being made towards achieving interoperability, the FRC has called upon the President to commit to a "target date" to achieve national emergency communications interoperability within the next decade. The President should commit to this "target date" before August 29, 2006 - the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

We urge you to do the same. Click here and tell your elected officials to make the communications crisis a national priority.