**STATEMENT OF**

**COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS**

Re: *Establishment of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau and
Other*

*Organizational Changes*

My hope is that when we look back on this proposed reorganization years
down the road, it will be seen as the first step in putting the FCC out
front, where it long should have been, in providing communications
security for all Americans in this dangerous age. It's been almost five
years since the tragedy of 9/11 and we know this: America is not as
ready it could be for the next attack should that awful day come---and
many experts believe it will indeed come. For me, and I suspect all my
colleagues and many others in this room, the passage of time has not
dulled the searing images of that day, nor our sense of revulsion at the
sheer barbarity of the attack and the senseless loss of more than 3000
lives. But neither does the passage of time bring comfort that we have
made sufficient progress in building the kind of comprehensive
communications response system America needs.

 

Much the same point was driven home by the chaos that ensued in the wake
of Hurricane Katrina. As wind and water engulfed New Orleans, public
safety officials from across the country selflessly made their way to
the Gulf Coast to offer their help and assistance. Too often their
efforts were hamstrung by lack of reliable, secure and interoperable
communications systems. Often they couldn't even contact one another.
Before long, hurricane season will be upon us again. Whether it's the
wrath of terrorists or the wrath of nature, time is not our friend.

 

I have said many times that with homeland security, business as usual is
not acceptable. That includes the business of this Commission. The very
first sentence of the Communications Act gives us all the charge we
need. It tells us that an important part of our job is to make
"available . . . a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide and world-wide
telecommunications service . . . for the purpose of the national
defense, for the purpose of promoting safety of life and property
through the use of wire and radio communication." What more did we need?
This seventy two-year-old statutory provision couldn't be more timely.
Reorganizing the FCC to address this charge is not only supported by the
statute; it makes eminent good sense. We have the nation's foremost
experts on communications technology working right here. Combining their
know-how with adequate resources and priority focus---if properly
executed---can only yield good results. So I am pleased that the
Chairman is moving ahead and taking this important step. I have long
thought a separate, highly visible and well-organized Bureau was the
right way to go.

 

The new Bureau will have a heavy and somber charge. It will be
responsible for communications public safety, homeland security,
national security, emergency management and disaster management and
preparedness. What we must do goes far beyond reshuffling and remodeling
existing resources. It goes to a new sense of urgency and action. It
goes to real-world results. So we will measure the Bureau's success not
by what we begin today, but by the concrete steps we implement to
encourage reliable, redundant and interoperable emergency communications
systems. The challenge is enormous. But unless we are at the forefront
of ensuring communications interoperability for our first responders, we
will be doomed to repeat the tragedies of the past. We will measure the
Bureau's success by the cooperation we build between industry, public
safety and all concerned stakeholders. And we will measure its success
by deploying our Commission assets to assist others in the efforts they
are making.

 

This latter point is perhaps less obvious, but it is to me critically
important. The new Bureau could make a significant contribution to the
extent that it acts as a facilitator and expediter to help public safety
organizations and first responders coordinate with both government and
industry. Let me give just one example. We need to ensure that our
hospitals and medical care providers are integral parts of a nation-wide
emergency communications system. This is an absolute necessity when you
consider the havoc that another hurricane or a bio-terror attack can
wreak. Yet the expertise and resources necessary to achieve this vary
widely among our medical facilities. Some have made great progress.
Others have made little. Why should every hospital across this broad
land have to start at square one, devising its own plan, developing its
options, figuring out how to implement a program, as if no one else has
been down this road before? How much better it would be if they could
call someone---say the FCC---and talk to experts who could tell them
what has been tried and works and what has been tried and doesn't work,
and give them a hand along the way. Think of the time and expense---and
maybe even lives---we could save by facilitating this kind of
preparation.  

 

We will be able to claim success, too, if this Bureau works with all
jurisdictions to make the full deployment of E911 services a reality in
every corner of this country. This is a crisis that we need to find
creative ways to address. 

 

The FCC should be front and center when it comes to safeguarding this
nation's communications security. To the extent we aren't, we fail our
charge. I am not now, and never have been, in favor of waiting for
others to do our job. And it strikes me today, looking back at his
commendable leadership in the aftermath of last year's hurricane season,
that Chairman Martin isn't, either. I know he and my other colleagues
are deeply committed to the road we head down today. This
reorganization, once put in place, provides a framework for action. It
is an important first step. We should have taken it four and a half
years ago. But now the task is to move forward because there is such an
incredible amount of work to do, and because we are talking about
challenges to our very safety and survival.

 

So I welcome this Order. I am pleased to support it. And I want to thank
all the people at this agency who have already worked long and hard in
the name of public safety and homeland security. I hope our actions
today will give them the tools and visibility they need to maximize
their efforts on behalf of the American people.