John Kerry: “today the Commerce Committee was scheduled to conduct an afternoon hearing regarding emergency communications. I regret…”

“today the Commerce Committee was scheduled to conduct an afternoon hearing regarding emergency communications. I regret that the hearing was postponed, and I hope and expect that the session will be quickly rescheduled. The events of September 11, 2001, uncovered a fundamental weakness in our communications system. We learned the hard way that in a time of crisis--when communication is most important--our first responders could not communicate at a basic level. Now, some 4 years later, Katrina has showed we have not fixed the problem. One of the biggest problem facing police, fire and first responders in the gulf coast was that the communications system was knocked off line. It was remarkable to watch as the television news crews had better luck communicating than our first responders. As the disaster unfolded, emergency officials repeatedly cited communications failures as a major obstacle to the disaster response effort. So despite the good work of the 9/11 Commission and the hard work of national and local officials, we find that the system is not hardened against terror or nature, and we remain dangerously vulnerable. Like all of my colleagues, I want a system that will work when we need it most. Frankly, there is not much good in an emergency communications system that doesn't work in emergencies. We must push ahead with the DTV transition so that new spectrum is made available and new technologies can come online.…”