I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4119 
To strengthen Federal leadership, provide grants, enhance outreach and guid-
ance, and provide other support to State and local officials to achieve 
communications interoperability, to foster improved regional collaboration 
and coordination, to promote more efficient utilization of funding devoted 
to public safety communications, to promote research and development 
for first responder communications, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 20, 2005 
Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Home-
land Security, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To strengthen Federal leadership, provide grants, enhance 
outreach and guidance, and provide other support to 
State and local officials to achieve communications inter-
operability, to foster improved regional collaboration and 
coordination, to promote more efficient utilization of 
funding devoted to public safety communications, to pro-
mote research and development for first responder com-
munications, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improve Interoperable 
Communications for First Responders Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) A major barrier to sharing information 
among police, firefighters, and others who may be 
called on to respond to terrorist attacks and other 
large-scale emergencies is the lack of interoperable 
communications systems, which can enable public 
safety agencies to talk to one another and share im-
portant, sometimes critical, information in an emer-
gency. 
(2) Communications interoperability has been 
identified by the Department of Homeland Security 
as 1 of the most essential capabilities necessary for 
first responders to achieve the national preparedness 
goal the Department of Homeland Security has es-
tablished for the Nation. 
(3) The lack of interoperability costs lives dur-
ing terrorist attacks or natural disasters, but also 
during everyday emergency operations. 
(4) Achieving interoperability is difficult be-
cause some 50,000 local agencies typically make 
independent decisions about communications sys-
tems. This lack of coordination also dramatically in-
creases the cost of public safety communications to 
Federal, State, local, and tribal governments. 
(5) Achieving the level of communications inter-
operability that is needed will require an unprece-
dented level of coordination and cooperation among 
Federal, State, local, and tribal public safety agen-
cies. Establishing multidisciplinary, cross-jurisdic-
tional governance structures to achieve the necessary 
level of collaboration is essential to accomplishing 
this goal. 
(6) The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Pre-
vention Act of 2004 requires the Secretary of Home-
land Security, in consultation with other Federal of-
ficials, to establish a program to ensure public safety 
interoperable communications at all levels of govern-
ment. 
(7) However, much more remains to be done. 
For example, in January 2005, the National Gov-
ernors Association reported that while achieving 
interoperability ranked as the top priority for States, 
obtaining the equipment and technology to fulfill 
this goal remains a challenge. The large majority of 
States report that they have not yet achieved inter-
operability in their States.