Call for More Action on 911 Fund Raids

In a letter to Congress, a group of 35 public safety and consumer advocacy organizations has called out nine states who have diverted their 911 funds to other purposes, and has asked for more stringent sanctions to discourage states from draining money intended to support comm centers. The four-page letter was signed by NENA and APCO officials, and by several individual comm center officials, and was addressed to four members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The writers applauded past efforts by Congress to limit diversion of state 911 funds through withholding certain federal funding. But the letter said that Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, “ignored Congressional intent and raided or diverted” their 911 funds. “We are calling on Congress to do more,” the letter said, including additional legislation that would withhold even more federal funds from offending states. The letter writers also asked Congress to revise the current FCC reporting procedures for monitoring state 911 raids to better identify offenders. Download (pdf) the full letter here.