Cammack Introduces Bipartisan Bill Improving Public Safety Communications

Representative Kat Cammack (R-FL) is introducing bipartisan legislation to improve public safety communications for first responders, which she said is "critical."

Specifically, the Public Safety Communications Act amends the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act (NTIA), the White House's telecommunication and information policy advisory branch, to create a new Office of Public Safety Communications.

This organization would then have an Associate Administrator coordinate grant programs associated with Next Generation 911, the digital internet protocol (IP)- based system working to replace analog 911 systems nationwide.

In other words, Rep. Cammack's bill is designed to improve and coordinate the ongoing improvements in 911 emergency services more efficiently.

Other duties of the Associate Administrator for Public Safety Communications would be communicating public safety policies to public and private entities and evaluating such communications before Congress.

In her press release, Rep. Cammack said, "As the wife of a first responder, I know how important public safety communications are to law enforcement and emergency response personnel. New technologies are emerging daily that can help to improve the work of our first responders, which is why coordination is critical. I know this is a bipartisan effort that should garner support on both sides of the aisle, and I look forward to welcoming my colleagues to join this legislation."

Back in March 2021, the Florida Congresswoman, whose husband is a SWAT medic, displayed her husband's vest on the House floor as part of an address fiercely criticizing efforts to defund police nationwide.

However, the gesture resulted in her husband being written up by his police department despite previously possessing a perfect record of service.

"Back in March, when I took my husband's SWAT vest up here to the Capitol to fight against the defunding of the police, when I got home, my husband got written up for that.  That is what we are up against," Cammack told Fox News the following December, adding that her husband's record was "blemished by something that I did in defense of his department."