The House Committee on Energy and Commerce

David G. Boyd, Ph.D.
Director, SAFECOM Program Office
Directorate of Science and Technology
Department of Homeland Security

TESTIMONY
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND THE INTERNET
JUNE 23, 2004
2322 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING

Good morning and thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee for the invitation to speak to you today.I appreciate your interest in the Department's interoperability efforts and am grateful for this opportunity to address the important issue of public safety interoperability and compatibility before you.

The ability for our nation's first responders to communicate with each other as well as share equipment in times of crisis is a critical issue facing our nation. Solving this challenge is a long-standing and complex problem. There are, however, some immediate steps the department can take this year to address the . communications and equipment needs of first responders and make substantial progress to achieving the penultimate communications solution.

Communications interoperability is the ability of public safety agencies to talk across disciplines and jurisdictions via radio communications systems, exchanging voice and/or data with one another on demand, in real time, as authorized. The nation is heavily invested in an existing infrastructure that is largely incompatible. Currently, efforts within the Federal government to address the interoperability problem are being coordinated to incorporate the needs of local, state, and Federal practitioners.However, there remain many challenges, both technical and cultural, facing the improvement of public safety communications and interoperability.

Whether fighting a fire or responding to a terrorist attack, efficient and effective emergency response requires coordination, communication, and the sharing of vital information and equipment among numerous public safety and security agencies.As the National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets makes clear, "systems supporting emergency response personnel, however, have been specifically developed and implemented with respect to the unique needs of each agency.Such specification complicates interoperability, thereby hindering the ability of various first responder organizations to communicate and coordinate resources during crisis situations."[1] The Department of Homeland Security (DHS or the Department) believes this issue is so important that it has identified interoperability of communications and equipment as the number two priority for the second year strategic plan.We seek to ensure the interoperability of critical emergency response systems or products by making it possible for them to work with other systems or products without special effort on the part of the user.

The Department also has developed intradepartmental program offices to address the needs identified by emergency response providers[2] and to respond to the problems identified in the National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets.One of these is a program office to significantly improve the coordination and validation of the Department's interoperability programs, thus allowing firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel to better communicate and share equipment with each other during a major disaster.

Since its beginning, the Department has been involved with the issue of wireless interoperability through project SAFECOM. As a public safety practitioner driven program, SAFECOM, housed within the Department, has been the Federal government's central point to coordinate Federal wireless investments and activities and partner with State, local, and Tribal governments to improve the interoperability of our nation's wireless communications.

Secretary Ridge has now specifically tasked the Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) within DHS, in coordination with other DHS programs, to lead the planning and implementation of an office of interoperability that will address the larger issue of interoperability, including wireless communications.By coordinating and leveraging the vast range of interoperability programs and related efforts spread across the Federal government, this office, currently titled the "Office of Interoperability and Compatibility" (OIC), will reduce unnecessary duplication in programs and spending and ensure consistency across federal activities related to research and development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E), standards, technical assistance, training, and grant funding related to interoperability.This new program office will encompass the SAFECOM office, which will continue as a key national initiative, into the effort to address the larger issue of interoperability.

Within the OIC, we will create a series of portfolios to address critical interoperability and compatibility issues related to the emergency response provider and homeland security communities. Initial priority portfolio areas that the OIC will address, in coordination with other Departmental offices, including the DHS Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP), include:

To establish these portfolios, the OIC currently is identifying the necessary stakeholders and will utilize these stakeholders to assess and finalize the portfolio areas.Through this process, the OIC will identify the current initiatives as well as the most appropriate short-term deliverables.

The OIC is being modeled after the SAFECOM Program, which represents a successful model for how to address highly sophisticated technical and policy issues associated with public safety communications and interoperability.Leveraging the work that the SAFECOM Program has already undertaken, the OIC will look to replicate relevant elements of the SAFECOM process and to build on SAFECOM's achievements in bolstering public safety communications.

The new OIC will employ a systems engineering or lifecycle approach to identifying, defining, and developing action plans in each portfolio area.This lifecycle approach is both iterative and collaborative.It emphasizes the need to create a common set of standards, policies, and procedures that encourage backwards compatibility of new solutions which will drive the migration of systems towards advanced, interoperable equipment and processes in the future.Common components of this lifecycle approach include:

· Validation of needs assessments (consistent with Homeland Security Presidential Directive-8, which lays out the National Preparedness Goal, as appropriate);

· Development, with the user community, of a comprehensive statement of requirements for each portfolio;

· A robust standards program to identify and adopt existing, effective standards and to support the development of essential new standards when none exist;

· Development of policy and legal reference materials or recommendations relevant to each portfolio.

Within the OIC, we are following the successful SAFECOM model by creating action plans for each of these areas, and for others identified as the portfolios are developed. Each of these action plans will be developed through a collaborative process that brings together the relevant stakeholders to provide clear direction on a path forward. The process to develop action plans will involve:

· Identification of the relevant stakeholders at the local, state, and federal levels;

· A stakeholder working session to define the issues, assess user needs, and create a detailed vision of the "end state" for each portfolio; and

· A governance structure that ensures ongoing participation on the part of key stakeholders at the local, State, and Federal levels.

Through this end-user input, the new OIC will produce a strategy and action plan to address the interoperability and compatibility needs in each of these portfolios.

The OIC structure should be an organizational reflection of the lifecycle process it is designed to manage and support. The main purpose of the OIC will be to provide common standards of practice, protocol, planning, and evaluation across the broadest spectrum of interoperability activities and to facilitate the prioritization and coordination of these efforts within the framework of a common, nationwide vision.

The OIC will include a program management office responsible for coordinating the various portfolio managers and their respective management offices. In addition, a cross-departmental coordinating council or interagency interoperability policy board, chaired by the Undersecretary for S&T, will be established to ensure that its efforts are coordinated intra- and inter-departmentally.This board will help reduce duplication in programs and activities.

With respect to specific task, the new OIC has already, at the direction of the Secretary of Homeland Security, undertaken a major initiative - RapidComm 9/30 - to achieve near term, emergency, incident-level interoperability in ten high threat urban areas by September 30, 2004.Working with a wide range of Federal agencies, including the ODP, the Justice Department, and the National Guard, we have begun working with all ten urban areas to identify what it is in place, what is available, and what is still needed to provide interoperability to support a major incident.

Those with a vested interest in the OIC are the people, agencies, and organizations that will directly benefit from enhanced interoperability of equipment and processes.Creating interoperability requires coordination and partnerships among office managers, partners, and stakeholders.Secretary Ridge has directed that S&T will be the manager-or owner-of this office, and it will be essential for the office to establish partnerships with all relevant offices and agencies in order to effectively coordinate like-topic activities.These partners will be instrumental in ensuring that our programs address all possible issues, ranging from grants for equipment procurement to regulatory policy creation.These partners and additional relevant stakeholders include representatives from the following communities:

In order for the OIC to effectively coordinate and validate the Department's interoperability programs, it will need to employ a common set of standards, policies, and procedures. This will require that the program employ a user driven approach and recognize the substantial investments that public safety and homeland security agencies have already made in existing equipment and procedures. Additionally, this office must recognize the challenges associated with incorporating legacy equipment and practices in the face of constantly changing technology. Driving principles behind the management of this office include:

1. Recognizing that it must be a user driven program - Emergency response providers and homeland security practitioners - who own, operate and maintain more than 90% of the nation's wireless public safety infrastructure - will be integrated into the program from its beginning, thereby allowing the program to create solutions that meet their needs.The public safety community will be involved primarily through associations.There are two reasons for this approach:(1) the associations represent the leadership of their respective constituencies; and (2) as the National Task Force on Interoperability (NTFI) has demonstrated, the associations are an excellent way to reach out to these communities.

2. Extensive leveraging of what exists - Cooperation and coordination with existing programs reduces unnecessary duplication of effort and increases efficient use of Federal resources dedicated to common causes.In addition, the investments that many public safety agencies have already made must be maximized.

3. A standards-based approach - Standards maximize competition across industry, encourage technology innovation, create an overall cost savings, and increase compatibility among public safety and homeland security agencies.

4. Compliance with key policy documents and initiatives - Compliance with the National Incident Management System, the National Response Plan, and relevant Homeland Security Presidential Directives will provide a consistent nationwide approach for agencies at all levels of government to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from major incidents.

5. An effective outreach program - Outreach efforts will emphasize the need for interoperability, and tools for its implementation, to practitioners and policy makers at all levels of government, and the public safety community.

As a public safety practitioner driven program, and as part of OIC, SAFECOM is working with existing Federal communications initiatives and key public safety stakeholders to address the need to develop better technologies and processes for the cross-jurisdictional and cross-disciplinary coordination of existing systems and future networks.SAFECOM has three objectives:(1) developing standards in partnership with Federal, State, local, and tribal public safety organizations to define the requirements for first responder interoperability at all levels; (2) building from those standards, developing a national architecture in coordination with the work under the National Response Plan to assist in the progression towards wireless interoperability; and (3) developing and implementing a process to coordinate the Federal government's wireless interoperability investments and programs.The customer base includes over 50,000 local and State public safety agencies and organizations.Federal customers include over 100 agencies engaged in public safety disciplines such as law enforcement, firefighting, public health, and disaster recovery.Because it is a government-wide E-Gov initiative, SAFECOM is not a part of the S&T's FY 2005 budget request.Rather, SAFECOM is currently funded by multiple partner agencies that transfer funds to DHS.

Over the last year, SAFECOM has made significant progress in both achieving its short-term goals and building the foundation for a longer term, comprehensive program.It has established itself as the umbrella program within the Federal government coordinating with local, tribal, State, and Federal public safety agencies to improve public safety communication and interoperability.

· SAFECOM will conduct a strategic planning session at the Executive and Advisory (EC/AC) Committee Meetings in June.The EC and AC are comprised of senior level stakeholders from the local, State, and Federal public safety communications communities.At this time, strategic initiatives developed at the December Joint Planning Meeting will be reviewed, and new objectives will be developed for the short and long term goals of the program.Afterwards, SAFECOM will produce and distribute a modified strategic plan based off the stakeholder comments presented at these meetings.

· SAFECOM will develop a detailed project plan using the result of the strategic planning session and the project team's technical expertise.This project plan will include tasks that need to be accomplished by the Commonwealth along with realistic timeframes for completion.Like the Virginia Strategic Planning Session, this plan will serve as a model for other States as they work towards achieving communications interoperability for public safety first responders.

· SAFECOM will facilitate interoperability grant peer review sessions enabling public safety communications subject matter experts to evaluate and comment upon grant applications for FY 2004 COPS and FEMA communications equipment grants.These reviewers will ensure that grants will be distributed only for projects that meet SAFECOM developed interoperability requirements.

· SAFECOM is undertaking an initiative to ensure a minimum level of public safety interoperability is in place in ten key urban areas by September 30, 2004.The RapidCom9/30 project will provide incident commanders in charge of managing/directing various responding agencies the ability to adequately communicate with each other and the respective command center within one hour of an incident.Due to this effort's limited scalability, it is not meant to serve as comprehensive public safety communications solutions, but as an interim solution that provides minimum interoperability capability during emergency responses.

· SAFECOM will release a report detailing the program's recommendations on spectrum policy in regard to narrowbanding in the 700 MHz band.As recent events in the 800 MHz band have shown, coordinated spectrum policy is important for public safety communications, and SAFECOM's input to any plan in the 700 MHz band will allow for more efficient spectrum use when allocated frequencies become available in the next decade.

· SAFECOM will release a report outlining how National Guard Land Mobile Radio (LMR) resources can be incorporated into the plan to achieve nationwide interoperability.It will also identify how local public safety organizations can leverage National Guard assets.The National Guard already has a great deal of investment in LMR facilities, and this report will help local and State public safety organizations utilize resources that may already be present in their communities.

· SAFECOM will release a report detailing the findings of its testing and evaluation program.The first report will focus on the performance of public safety communications equipment with the P25 Phase I standard.This report is the first step in developing a comprehensive national architecture plan for communications interoperability.

· The Web Portal of Interoperability Information will be the "One-Stop-Shop" for information pertaining to public safety communications interoperability.As a portal, it will be an interactive community space, allowing registered users to research potential solutions as well as share their thoughts on existing technologies.Version 1.0 of this portal, which will be released in November, is the first attempt to provide first responders with a central repository of critical information pertaining to communications interoperability.

· SAFECOM will release a methodology detailing how a baseline of the level of interoperability nationwide can be established.The baseline is required in order to understand the current level of interoperability at the local and State levels and will be used to measure the success of the SAFECOM Program in achieving national communications interoperability for first responders in the coming years.

Our nation is heavily invested in an existing infrastructure that is largely incompatible. As I stated earlier, current efforts within the Federal government to address the interoperability problem are being coordinated to incorporate the needs of local, State, and Federal practitioners.We must continue to pursue the current comprehensive strategy that takes into account technical and cultural issues associated with improving communications and interoperability, and recognizes the challenges associated with incorporating legacy equipment and practices given the constantly changing nature of technology.

The many obstacles facing public safety interoperability and compatibility make for complex problems with no one-size-fits-all solution.Flexible and dynamic resolutions are necessary to combat the unique challenges presented by distinct localities and States.The new OIC, with its partners, will work towards a world where lives and property are never lost unnecessarily because public safety agencies are unable to communicate or lack compatible equipment and training resources.

[1] "National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets," The White House, February 2003, page 43.

[2] As defined in the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Section 2(6), "The term 'emergency response providers' includes Federal, State, and local emergency public safety, law enforcement, emergency response, emergency medical (including hospital emergency facilities), and related personnel, agencies, and authorities." 6 U.S.C. 101(6)

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