Congressman August Pfluger of Texas’ 11th District, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, participated in a Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing to address public safety communications across the United States.
The hearing featured testimony from several witnesses: Steve Newton, Emergency Management Director for Chatham County; Sheriff Shannon Dicus of San Bernardino County; Dr. Brian Fontes, former Chief Executive Officer of the National Emergency Number Association; and Randall C. Wright, Executive Director at WUFT/WRUF for the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network and Project Beacon.
During the exchange, Rep. Pfluger asked Mr. Newton about his experiences during Hurricane Helene regarding FirstNet’s emergency response efforts.
Mr. Newton responded: “We saw, first and foremost, the partnerships at the state level of coordinating where we’re responding or deploying equipment to where the need is. And then throughout the event, as the event evolved, our ability to move equipment around and make things work. Again, it was a catastrophic disaster force in tremendous damage. Never seen this much from a technical side. The type of damage that we saw to fiber optic lines and to the power system, our ability to power cell sites, but the close partnerships there, and the fact that we have several agencies that have their own deployables, and so I’m able to set up my own FirstNet, temporary, compact, rapid deployable. And I think, you know, the challenge, I think we’ll see in the near future is, as that becomes more prolific, we still have to coordinate that with the carrier. We want to make sure that we’re not creating the interference.”
Rep. Pfluger noted challenges in reaching rural areas during disasters such as floods in Kerrville within his district or hurricanes elsewhere: “Well, that brings up a good point. I mean sometimes we can’t stage, sometimes we can’t predict. You know in the case of floods that happened in my district and in Kerrville I mean that highlights the need for secondary options and challenges of getting into those rural places whether it’s Hurricane Helene or it’s in Hill Country of Texas or other places. Sometimes you can’t actually physically get there. So you know I want to hear your thoughts on low Earth orbit direct-to-device options that could be helpful in those cases.”
Mr. Newton shared an example involving satellite technology: “So one of my staff members deployed to Helene the day after impact and his task was to bring back connectivity to PSAPs. And I believe I don’t know if it was his first or his 13th PSAP that he arrived at but the person greeted him at door and said I don’t know what an angel looks like but I believe it’s you. And his role was to bring connectivity to a communication center that had been in dark from time of impact and so I think in fact where he deployed was a low Earth orbit satellite system a star-like system that provided WiFi and gave you WiFi calling. And that center was then reconnected both with public and their families who didn’t know – those tele-communicators – how they fared.”
August Pfluger has represented Texas’s 11th District since 2021 after succeeding Mike Conaway in Congress. He won election over Jon Mark Hogg by securing nearly 80% of votes.
