National Emergency Number Association members began their annual Capitol Hill meetings Wednesday to urge Congress to pass the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-1629/S-1015) and Next Generation 9-1-1 Act (HR-2760/S-1479). HR-1629/S-1015 would change the federal government's classification of public safety call-takers and dispatchers to "protective service occupations" (see 1904050054). HR-2760/S-1479 would provide $12 billion in federal grants for NG-911 projects and directs NTIA to provide further technical assistance while also maintaining state and local control of 911 systems. Democrats included the bill’s text (see 1905220076) in their Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-2741), which NENA also supports. Lead HR-1629 sponsor Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., urged NENA members before their meetings to counter opponents’ arguments against the measure, including that it could increase personnel costs due to a change in dispatchers’ job classification. The bill “comes with zero costs,” leaving it up to government agencies to decide whether the change in job classification should lead to higher pay for dispatchers, Torres said at the event. She noted OMB concerns torpedoed an effort to attach the text of HR-1629 to the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (see 1912120061).

APCO filed a petition for clarification Friday in response to FCC rules requiring national wireless carriers to meet a vertical location accuracy metric of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless E-911 calls for z-axis capable handsets. The rules are to take effect March 16 (see 2001150011). The filing was expected to have been posted after our deadline. APCO wants to “clarify the rules … so that wireless carriers provide the 9-1-1 location expected.” Emergency communications centers “will be in the best position to know if carriers are providing z-axis information that complies with the metric, but clarification is needed so that, in the event of non-compliance, ECCs can raise appropriate concerns," APCO said. The group asked “which phones should consumers expect to provide vertical location information with 9-1-1 calls? How do carriers ensure that they have deployed z-axis technology in a manner that will achieve the accuracy demonstrated in the test bed? What additional z-axis technology testing is required, given that testing described in CTIA’s Stage Z Test Report was not sufficient to demonstrate compliance with the z-axis metric? When must carriers provide floor level information in addition to the altitude of a 9-1-1 caller?”

The National Emergency Number Association launched an NG9-1-1 Interoperability Oversight Commission. NENA said Wednesday it and other stakeholders will work together on the commission, which will address next-generation 911 issues, including “the need for Public Key Infrastructure to manage secure credentials within the 9-1-1 industry.” NENA will have “no direct control … allowing for fully independent oversight,” said Brandon Abley, NENA director-technical issues. “We’re following the exact same model used in other critical industries.”

TRENTON -- A state senator wants to amend New Jersey’s constitution to stop about 90 percent of 911 fee revenue from being used for unrelated purposes. "It's high time that we say enough is enough,” said Sen. Michael Testa (R) alongside county and wireless officials at a Friday news conference.

Efforts to end 911 fee diversion face more headwinds in four states that the FCC found continued the practice in 2018 (see 1912190077), 911 advocates said in interviews. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told us he’s following up with West Virginia, which hasn’t acted despite a 2018 promise by Gov. Jim Justice (R), and Rhode Island, which last year addressed the practice in a way he called problematic.

Five states diverted nearly $198 million, or 7.6 percent of all 911 fee revenue, for unrelated purposes in 2018, the FCC reported. That dropped about $87 million from 2017. FCC members said Thursday that any reshuffling is inappropriate.

Hill lawmakers' communications policy aspirations for a continuing resolution to fund the federal government past Dec. 20 took simultaneous steps forward and back Tuesday and Wednesday. Congressional leaders finalized an expected deal to attach language from two House-side Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bills into the funding extension measure (see 1912090051). A contentious Senate Commerce Committee markup of the 5G Spectrum Act (S-2881) and other factors, meanwhile, raised doubts about the prospects of using the CR to weigh in on a planned FCC auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band (see 1912100001).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Monday decision to pursue a public auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz band (see 1911180026) has shifted some lawmakers' attention from forcing the commission's hand to ensuring proceeds from the sale are allocated for rural broadband deployments and other telecom priorities. Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., are aiming to continue advancing the Clearing Broad Airwaves for New Deployment (C-Band) Act (HR-4855/S-2921) as a potential proceeds allocation mechanism. Kennedy discussed potential pay-for options for C-band proceeds during a Thursday Senate Appropriations Financial Services hearing.

APCO said many 911 directors agree they need floor-level identification and not just height above ellipsoid (HAE) data to provide first responders with the information they need to respond to wireless emergency calls. APCO reported on a meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, posted Wednesday in docket 07-114. Commissioners will vote Friday on an order requiring carriers to provide vertical axis data, but not floor levels (see 1911140060). Officials from New York City; Washington, D.C.; New Orleans; Tarrant County, Texas; the Denver and Seattle areas; Richmond; and Raleigh are among those demanding floor-level data, APCO said. “Even the largest departments in the country do not have the resources to operationalize a raw vertical estimate in terms of HAE by creating and maintaining indoor maps for the buildings in their jurisdictions, nor should they be expected to do so,” APCO said: “They have also cautioned the Commission against assuming that first responders in the field will have devices capable of matching altitude measurements to those received from 9-1-1 callers.”

The California Public Utilities Commission will weigh more disaster relief rules for communications providers in response to problems during recent public safety power shutoffs (PSPS), CPUC President Marybel Batjer said at a Wednesday hearing livestreamed from San Francisco. Many local officials and telco customers couldn’t attend the hearing due to another power shutoff Wednesday, the sixth in two months, she said. Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen dismissed carriers’ arguments they couldn’t anticipate extended power shutoffs.