Robin Carnahan: “I would really just echo some of the comments that you made about interoperability. When I have met with our police and…”

“I would really just echo some of the comments that you made about interoperability. When I have met with our police and firefighters, our emergency personnel, our front line responders back home, I mean they tell me that loud and clear. I mean, they are not only being given greater responsibility and greater burdens and greater costs to do all of those things we are asking them to do, but they are getting insufficient help to do it. If there is anybody that I have ever seen as committed to their jobs, with passion and belief in what they are doing, it is those public servants. They are some of the best. But so they tell us that loud and clear. The 9/11 Commission identified interoperability of communications as critical, critical to effectively respond to a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. And yet in response to what we hear locally, what the 9/11 Commission has done, the administration did not request any funds or grants to enhance interoperability. Again, I think a very big disconnect from what the vital need is on the ground in our communities. And certainly, if you look at, I want to mention port security, as the Port of St. Louis is the second largest inland port in our country. I have followed that closely. But there has been underfunding in the port security program. It has been eliminated. And it has just been put in with a pool of other security measures, along with rail, mass transit and other infrastructure.…”