Joseph T. Burns: “I appreciate what Senator Nelson had to say, also, on this legislation. This Congress should not go sine die without…”

“I appreciate what Senator Nelson had to say, also, on this legislation. This Congress should not go sine die without passing these three pieces of legislation. All three of them are very important. In fact, I would say the E-911, the enhanced 911 bill, is probably the most glaring public safety legislation we have worked on in many years. One would think this legislation that says we are going to take the money that is collected and it has to be spent in our PSAPS--in other words, our communications centers--to upgrade their technology, so that when a 9-1-1 call comes in from a cell phone we can locate the caller. We have that in wired lines, but we do not have it so much in wireless phones. I think it is time that we do that. This is a great piece of public safety legislation, and we have been working on it for about 4 years. One would think that would be a no-brainer. It took us long enough to pass legislation to make a 9-1-1 call go into the nearest first responder.”