The House of Representatives has released its annual report card on the Department of Homeland Security and it reads like my high school transcript:
No "A's"
Four "B's"
Eight "C's"
One "C-/D+"
One "F"
Three "Incompletes" With regards to emergency communications, the House Homeland Security Committee issued DHS a "C," noting that "Improved emergency communications would be achieved more quickly if the Department would fully implement the Congressional mandates outlined in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriation's Act of fiscal year 2007
with a sense of urgency" [
emphasis added].
"With a sense of urgency." Those last five words caught my eye because for nearly a year now the FRC has been calling on the President and the Congress to establish
a hard date by which to achieve communications interoperability for our first responders.
To date, efforts towards achieving true interoperability have been frustrated by the lack of a national strategy and "bottom up" efforts to resolve the communications crisis. A national target date for interoperability, coupled with meaningful action and national leadership, will provide a sense of urgency while helping to align disparate programs and competing efforts so that they work together towards a common goal.
In addition, the report calls on DHS to:
Establish the Office of Emergency Communications, which is charged with completing a National Emergency Communications Strategy by October 4, 2007;
Identify ways to expedite the adoption of consensus standards for emergency communications equipment;
Conduct a second assessment as a follow-up to the National Interoperability Baseline released in December 2006. (Actually, the NIJ was in the middle of doing a comprehensive review of interoperable communications when funding for the program was recently discontinued.)
