Push for emergency workers' broadband net

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand will begin a major push Tuesday for legislation to set aside broadband spectrum for a high-speed network that police, firefighters and other first responders say they need.

At a news conference Tuesday, the two New York Democrats will join the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), to tout the legislation as the best way to help first responders fix the radio systems that failed on Sept. 11, 2001, and during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"What we learned after 9/11 is that our first responders couldn't communicate to each other during emergencies," Schumer said, "and that led to many deaths that might have been prevented had this system been in place."

Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, is moving the legislation ahead in the Senate as a similar House bill sponsored by Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) appears stalled in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Rockefeller aims to have a committee vote on a bill next week, possibly on May 25, aides said. A discussion draft is being circulated among committee Democrats and Republicans for a bill that can pass out of committee, sources said.

The House and Senate bills face an uphill battle because they reverse a policy set by the Bush administration that's still embraced by the Federal Communications Commission as part of its National Broadband Plan.

The legislation would take a pair of 5 MHz slices of the spectrum, known as the D Block, that the FCC has slated for an auction to the highest bidder among wireless companies and instead turn them over to public safety officials at no cost.

Some lawmakers are counting on proceeds of the auctions to help reduce the deficit.

Schumer said the push for this bill will be modeled on the successful passage, against the odds, of the Zadroga 9/11 health bill in December.

"It is the kind of thing, when you focus attention on it, people are going to vote for it," Schumer said. "It will have strong bipartisan support. It's not ideological."

Retired Ithaca Police Chief Harlin McEwen of the Public Safety Alliance, lobbying for the dedicated spectrum, said, "We're pleased that they're moving it forward. The goal is to get something passed and signed by the president by Sept. 11."