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Subcommittee advances markup on Next Generation 9-1-1 bill, leaves funding unfinalized
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Summary
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a markup to advance bipartisan public-safety communications bills, including the Next Generation 9-1-1 Act that would create NTIA grants, a national NG9-1-1 cybersecurity center and an advisory board; committee leaders said grant funding levels are still being negotiated.
Speaker 1 opened a subcommittee markup on public-safety communications, saying the panel would consider a package of bipartisan bills aimed at upgrading 9-1-1 call centers, improving wireless emergency alerts and strengthening outage reporting.
"Alongside my friend Representative Carter from Louisiana, I recently introduced the Next Generation 9-1-1 Act," Speaker 1 said, describing the measure as establishing a grant program at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a nationwide NG9-1-1 cybersecurity center and a national NG9-1-1 advisory board. The speaker characterized upgrading call centers to NG9-1-1 technology as "crucial for public safety."
The bill would promote deployment of Internet Protocol-based Next Generation 9-1-1 systems, which the speaker said would enable "advanced tools for both the public and our first responders to use" and address a "patchwork of call centers" that still rely on legacy, noninteroperable systems. The subcommittee discussion emphasized interoperability and nationwide deployment as central goals.
On funding, Speaker 1 said the committee is "still working on finding appropriate dollar amount to fund this grant program," and stressed pairing the initiative with "fiscal responsibility." The markup record in the transcript does not include a final dollar amount or a vote on funding.
The markup package also includes several bipartisan proposals aimed at ensuring timely alerts for natural disasters and other potential risks, and measures to improve outage reporting for communications infrastructure. Speaker 1 thanked colleagues on both sides of the aisle for work on the proposals and said they look forward to moving the bills through the committee and to the House floor.
Speaker 1 yielded five minutes to Ranking Member Matsui for her opening statement, which begins the next segment of the markup. The transcript of this session records the start of the markup and the policy priorities discussed; it does not record formal votes or final funding decisions for the NTIA grant program.
