RSSThe Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International released its legislative and policy priorities for 2021.
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“From an advocacy perspective, 2020 was a mixed bag,” Jeff Cohen, APCO chief counsel and director of government relations, wrote in a blog. “We witnessed some progress with federal legislation, but there’s a lot more work to be done in the new Congress. And under the previous FCC leadership, we had an unusually difficult time, with APCO needing to challenge three public-safety-related decisions, including one in federal court. We’ve certainly had disagreements with the FCC before, mostly over how aggressive to be in making improvements for public safety, but we never had to be concerned that FCC actions would have the potential to directly threaten public safety.”
APCO’s legislative priorities for 2021 are reclassifying 9-1-1 telecommunicators, next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) funding, wellness for 9-1-1 professionals and network outages impacting 9-1-1 services.
The organization’s FCC regulatory priorities are 9-1-1 location accuracy, 4.9 GHz, 6 GHz, network outage reporting to 9-1-1 communications centers, a carrier/emergency communications center (ECC) database, wireless emergency alerts and upgrades to the FCC’s universal licensing system (ULS).
“Like Congress, the leadership and composition of the FCC is changing, and with that comes new opportunities to collaborate with the FCC and work with Congress to pass laws that will improve public safety communications,” Cohen wrote.
President Joe Biden appointed FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel acting FCC chairwoman after former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stepped down on Inauguration Day. Pai’s seat on the commission is currently vacant.
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