Ask Your House Representative to Cosponsor H.R. 5081 - Broadband for First Responders Act of 2010; Urge Your U.S. Senators & President Obama to Support D Block Allocation to Public Safety
APCO International implores you to CALL, EMAIL, and WRITE to your U.S. House Representative today to strongly urge him/her to cosponsor H.R. 5081 - Broadband for First Responders Act of 2010 NOW! Please call, write and email your two U.S. Senators and urge them to introduce a companion to HR5081 in the U.S. Senate. Finally, contact the White House and urge President Obama to formally support HR5081, and ask his Administration to support D block allocation to public safety.

Congressman Peter King (NY 3 - R) and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (NY 11 - D) recently introduced the Broadband for First Responders Act of 2010 (H.R. 5081) in the United States House of Representatives. This bipartisan legislation would mandate that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocate the 10 MHz of Spectrum, known as the D Block, to public safety for the creation of a national public safety interoperable mobile broadband network.

Call to Action: Congress Needs To Reallocate Spectrum for Public Safety Wireless Broadband
APCO President Dick Mirgon and Executive Committee Members came to Washington, DC on January 12 as part of a unified group of major national public safety associations to urge Congress and the Obama Administration to reallocate the 700 MHz D Block spectrum to public safety for broadband. President Mirgon requests that all APCO Members contact their congressional delegation, both US Senators and US Representatives, to strongly support our nation's first responders by providing the critical additional spectrum for priority broadband use. Be sure to ask for the legislative staff that works on telecommunications issues.

In the absence of swift Congressional action to remove the D Block from auction, the FCC must, under current law, "expeditiously" re-auction this critical spectrum. This would effectively forever preclude public safety's ability to obtain 20 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 700 MHz band.

Specifically, we request that Congress pass legislation directing the FCC to remove any auction requirements for the D Block and to allocate it directly to public safety as part of the nationwide Public Safety Broadband License (PSBL). This will result in public safety having access to 20 MHz of broadband spectrum that is essential to meet public safety's expanding requirements and to maximize efficient use of broadband technologies. We request that Congress and the FCC work with public safety to identify dedicated funding sources to build and maintain the nationwide public safety wireless broadband network. Additionally, a source of funding will be required to support the PSBL to help ensure a nationwide framework for interoperability.

Contact Your Senators and Representatives
Download the Letter Template
View the Talking Points
View the Background
View the Press Conference on CSPAN

For more information about this issue please contact Yucel Ors, Director of Legislative Affairs at orsy@apcomail.org.