Marsha Blackburn: “When disaster strikes, there is a lot of hard work to be done, and every second counts. First responders go into action…”

“When disaster strikes, there is a lot of hard work to be done, and every second counts. First responders go into action for those that need help. Relief organizations and volunteers rush in to begin the process of cleaning up. Utilities and service providers must be on the ground repairing damaged infrastructure. All of these mission-critical tasks require a functioning communications network. People turn to the network for potentially lifesaving information and rely on its functionality to reach emergency services. We are here today to consider this bill. Representative Pallone--I want to give some credit to him--has been a champion of following the eye-opening effects of Superstorm Sandy. He has worked tirelessly on this legislation since October 2012. In total, the Sandy storm resulted in roughly $74 billion in damages in the U.S. alone. Sometimes we forget the magnitude of that storm. Damage to power and communications infrastructure, it knocked out about 25 percent of the cell sites in its path. In some of the hardest-hit counties, 50 percent of those sites were down. When the networks go down, public safety communications and emergency response services are threatened. In order for the networks to get back up and running, telecommunications providers need access to critical resources and permission to enter the disaster area.…”