‘It’s sort of scary, having to sit in meetings constantly thinkin...
“It’s sort of scary, having to sit in meetings constantly thinking about the unthinkable,” Marsha MacBride, head of FCC’s Homeland Security Policy Council (HSPC), told Consumer/Disability Telecom Advisory Committee Fri. MacBride, also agency’s chief of staff, and Jeffrey Carlisle,…
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HSPC member and senior deputy chief of FCC Common Carrier Bureau, told group that HSPC acted as coordinator and catalyst in working with industry and end users to improve responses to potential emergencies. Asked about HSPC’s relationship to broader homeland security organizations in Washington, Carlisle said “we're here to provide input in the debate, as a resource.” While FCC for years has been concerned about interoperability, redundancy and other security issues, terrorist attacks offer different type of challenge, MacBride said. Many agencies are involved in such situation -- state, county, local, federal -- and they have to interact and communicate, she said. From wireless standpoint, that heightens need for interoperability, MacBride said. In general, it means federal actions have to be applicable to more local organizations, she said. “We're trying to develop things at the federal level that can be pushed down to the local level.” She said FCC was “very aware” that what was done at federal level would work only if it could be used by local organizations, which usually are the “first responders.” Carlisle said it wasn’t FCC’s role to be at “front line” in emergencies. “Our real function is more long term, to establish conditions to assure communications systems work even better next time,” assuming there is next time, he said. Carlisle said one of HSPC’s functions was to coordinate homeland security efforts within agency. At one point, people from various agencies were attending numerous different outside meetings each week, with little coordination among bureaus, he said. HSPC, which has representation from all bureaus, now requests that reports be written and shared with members of council whenever meetings are attended. Not only does that help HSPC members keep up to date on security efforts, it also makes better use of agency resources, Carlisle said. “I can look at a report and say ‘I know someone with knowledge about that,’ he said. “We can make input” in more efficient way, he said.