Today
here at Common Cause we have released
our latest report in a series of them on
government failures surrounding Hurricane Katrina - this time looking at how a
decade of failed telecommunications policy has left our police and first responders without adequate communications tools when crises hit.
Based on this information we are asking for our activists from all over the country to take immediate action and put pressure on the Congress to make sure that our publicly owned airwaves are used for public safety and the public good. Congress is expected to take up legislation this week that would set a hard deadline for the broadcast industry to turn over a portion of our airwaves. Please join us in
calling our Senators today to make sure that our publicly owned airwaves are used for public safety and the public good. More details after the jump. Thank you so much again for making us feel welcome at this wonderful community.
Technology is so advanced in this country -- and so portable -- that it's absolutely outrageous that emergency workers don't have handhelds or even radios that work during disasters. We can send text messages from our cell phones, we have GPS and mapping devices in our cars, we carry around thousands of bits of information on our Palm Pilots. But when a hurricane hits, our government officials who are supposed to be looking out for our safety are forced to resort to what
one report called "ancient battlefield tactics, sending runners back and forth among commanders with information."
The problem is that emergency personnel need more access to the public airwaves to allow them to upgrade their radios and other communications equipment. Television broadcasters currently have access to twice as many airwaves as they need, but they aren't budging. Congress is expected to take up legislation this week that would set a hard deadline for the broadcast industry to turn over a portion of our airwaves. We need to make sure that our publicly owned airwaves are used for public safety and the public good. Check out our op-ed and research report for more information.
Please call your Senators today and urge them to allocate a portion of the airwaves for public use, and to direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules to use our airwaves more efficiently and prevent broadcasters from hogging airwaves they don't need.