Letter by Gov. Kean and Rep. Hamilton to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

“The inability of first responders to communicate with each other was a critical failure on September 11, 2001. Incompatible and inadequate communications led to needless loss of life. To remedy this failure, the 9/11 Commission recommended legislation to provide for the expedited and increased assignment of radio spectrum for public safety purposes.

We commend the Senate Commerce Committee for marking up the SPECTRUM Act (S. 911), which will allocate an additional 10 MHz of radio spectrum—the “D block”—to public safety. Using this spectrum, public safety agencies will be able to build a nationwide interoperable broadband network, allowing diverse agencies to communicate with each other, and supporting mission critical voice, video, text, and other data transmissions.”