By Sarah Roebuck
Police1/EMS1
WASHINGTON — Members of the House introduced legislation aimed at speeding up the national upgrade to a modern 911 system, StateScoop reports.
The Next Generation 9-1-1 Act of 2023 proposes giving $15 billion in funding to support local 911 call centers in their adoption of an advanced suite of technologies capable of handling multimedia formats such as photos, videos and texts, while facilitating the seamless forwarding of calls.
The bill includes a provision for annual status reports commencing from October 1, 2024. It establishes an independent funding mechanism as an alternative to the unsuccessful Spectrum Innovation Act. The latter aimed to allocate spectrum fees toward various initiatives, including a $10 billion investment in the modernization of outdated 911 systems.
Organizations like the National Emergency Number Association have been advocating for support from Washington regarding an expensive 911 upgrade initiative that has been progressing gradually, with various components being addressed separately.
The group’s CEO, Brian Fontes, told StateScoop that if funding isn’t approved, 911 outages throughout the country will become more frequent.