Good morning and thank you all for
being here today. This is a historical
event for public safety. I would
especially like to thank Secretary
Wilbur Ross for hosting this morning's
event and to all the dignitaries
including Chairman Greg Walden,
Congresswoman Susan Brooks, FCC Chairman
Ajit Pai, fellow FirstNet board members,
but especially all the public safety men
and women in the audience. I have just a
few moments to reflect on from my
perspective what a monumental day today
is. And what we're really here to do is
to launch the construction of the
world's first mission critical public
safety broadband network. This innovative
public-private approach to construction
of this network is virtually
unprecedented in public safety. I'm very
proud of the vision that was
foreseen by the mothers and fathers of
this legislation. They had insights and
instincts that really led to the
eventual success of FirstNet and to them
we owe a great gratitude--great debt of
gratitude. A part of that magic is this
public-private board, this mixture of
public safety board members with
industry professionals. And I have to say
I've met some of the finest people of
my entire career sitting on this
FirstNet board, and of course preeminent
amongst them is Susan Swenson, our
chairwoman at FirstNet. Sue was unable to
be here with us today but I hope someday
you have the opportunity to meet her. She
is a world-class individual, a world-
class leader, and we owe a great deal of
our success to Sue. I'd also like to
thank my congressman, Greg Walden from
Oregon. Congressman Walden and his staff,
David Redl and Ray Baum. These
individuals had such insight and such
guidance, and as I look at the things
that made us successful today, I know
a large part of that had to do with
their insight and their guidance. And I'm
very proud to call Congressman
Walden my congressman from the state of
Oregon. I also want to reflect on the
steps ahead. This is not done. It
does take vision, and then we need
execution, and finally we need adoption.
And it is it is that adoption target
where we will focus our next energies.
And we're looking for each of our
partners in public safety and in
Congress and in the administration to
help us move forward on that. It is
unfortunate for those of you that
contributed to this network, like many of
us that have worked the streets for a
career, it's unfortunate that many of you
that contributed to this will never get
to see the lives you save. What I can
give you as an absolute certainty is that
this network will save many many lives
and there will be many people that will
owe you a debt of gratitude and will
have no way to thank you, so in advance
I'm thanking you. And lastly on behalf of
public safety, thank each of you for your
contribution. There there's probably not
a person in this room that didn't
contribute to the success of this
network. We will never be able to
individually thank you all and I hope my
words today will offer some measure of
appreciation from the public safety
community to those of you who we rely on
helping us execute our professions. With
that I would like to welcome to the
podium the Secretary of Commerce Mr.
Wilbur Ross.
Good morning everyone. Before we get
started I'd like to make an announcement.
This morning we've made affirmative
final determinations that steel
producers in Austria, Belgium, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are
dumping carbon and alloy cut-to-length
steel plate into the United States.
Margins in the dumping investigations
range from 3.6 percent up to
148.2.
Commerce also found that Korea is
providing unfair subsidies to its
producers of steel plate at a
countervailing duty of 4.31. As a result
of these final affirmative
determinations, Commerce will instruct U.S.
Customs and Border Protection to collect
cash deposits based on these final rates.
In 2015 imports of cut-length steel
plate from these countries totaled
nearly three-quarters of a billion
dollars in value, so I'm glad we can
bring relief to this industry as it
struggles with the problem of global
overcapacity and dumping. A healthy steel
industry is critical to our economy. But
now back to the important and exciting
task at hand: FirstNet. Chairman Walden--
Chairman Walden, by the way, is also the
kind of godfather of the whole FirstNet
project and you'll be hearing from him
shortly, so we're very grateful to the
initiative he and Senator Jay
Rockefeller took creating FirstNet in
the wake of the 9/11. Chairman Walden
members of Congress, Chairman Pai, FirstNet
board members, members of the first
responder community, Mr. Stephenson, and
honored guests. Thank you all for being
here for the important announcement of
this record-breaking 46.5 billion
dollar public-private partnership.
First off I'd like to take a moment to
recognize all the public service
personnel here in attendance. Our country
would be far less safe without your
vigilance and dedication, so let's give
them a hand.
When terrorism struck our shores on
September 11, 2001, our nation was stuck
in shock as flaws in our national
security were exposed. In the wake of
this tragedy our nation resolved to
never again let such lapses occur. With
the recommendations of the 9/11
Commission we began the task of building
a more secure society, taking concrete
steps to shield American citizens.
However one vital element outlined by
the 9/11 Commission remains unfinished: to
establish and operate a dedicated public
safety broadband network that equips
first responders with the latest
technology to save lives and to protect
our communities. The administration is
now prepared to deliver on the 9/11
Commission's recommendation. As you can
probably guess by whom I'm joined on the
stage, it's my honor to announce this
morning the public-private partnership
between FirstNet and AT&T; to build this
network. The network will provide
services in both urban and rural areas
to over 60,000 public service agencies
across all 50 states, the District of
Columbia, and tribal lands. The
partnership will invest 46 and a half
billion dollars into our economy. It will
create 10,000 jobs in the first two
years, and tens of thousands over the term
of the 25-year contract. It will spur
private sector innovation in telecom and
public safety. And most importantly, it
will change an untenable status quo by
providing first responders with the
tools they need to keep us safe.
Today is a landmark day for a public
safety across the country and is a prime
example of the incredible progress we
can make through public-private
partnerships. I thank you to our
colleagues in the Office of Management
and Budget and the Departments of
Homeland Security and Justice for your
commitments to the project. I would
especially like again to thank Chairman
Walden who, along with Jay Rockefeller,
helped first get this project off the
ground. Thank you also to the members of
the FirstNet board for their hard work
in going through one of the most complex
bidding processes you can imagine. Those
members are Chairman Susan Swanson; Vice
Chairman Jeff Johnson, retired Fire Chief of
Tualatin Valley Oregon, CEO Western Fire
Chiefs Association; OMB Director Mick
Mulvaney; Attorney General Jeff
Sessions; Secretary of Homeland Security
General Kelly; Chris Burbank, retired Salt
Lake City Chief of Police; Neil E. Cox;
former Vermont Governor James H. Douglas;
Edward Horowitz; Kevin McGinnis; former
Houston Mayor Annise D. Parker; Ed
Reynolds; Sheriff Richard Stanek who's
the Sheriff of Hennepin County, Minnesota;
Teri Takai, former CIO of the states
of California and Michigan. I cannot wait
to see what the future holds for this
unique partnership. Thank you very much.
Thank you sir, Secretary Ros. Also while
we're thinking about the people that
helped make this network happen, I would
be remiss if we didn't take an
opportunity to collectively thank the
staff that made this all happen for us, so
thank you to the staff. At this time I
would like to invite TJ Kennedy, the
president of FirstNet, to the podium. Good
morning. Today is a momentous day for
public safety. One of the things that
public safety did is they asked for this
network. Everybody in Congress, everybody
across this country got together to make
sure that the right elements were there
to make a network happen that would
allow police officers, firefighters,
paramedics, and emergency medical
technicians to better respond to the
calls for service of emergencies across
our country each and every day. This
network will empower those firefighters,
those police officers, those emergency
responders to have the tools that they
need to respond to those individual
emergencies, to respond to those large
events, the hurricanes, the tornadoes, the
everyday things that happen when you're
in your greatest time of need. But what
will be different is today and going
forward they will have the greatest and
the latest technology tools and the
network that makes sure that first
responder communications are always
first. They will have the ability to
share data, to be able to share photos, to
be able to share voice communications
across all agencies: city, county, state,
and federal agencies. Across all layers
of public safety: police, fire, and EMS. And
have the ability to make sure that the
right situational awareness is there so
that first responders can respond to the
needs of Americans each and every day.
This day is pretty historic because for
many years we've had to rely on
technology that did not give those most
advanced tools and didn't get the latest
innovation and technology into the hands
of those that are responding. No longer
will that be the case. The ability for
every single first responder in this
country
to access one network and to have that
network work across all 50 states, all
five territories, the District of
Columbia, and our tribal lands, and to have
all agencies be able to work together
and share mission-critical information
on a moment's notice has now changed.
Going forward for this generation of public
safety, for the next generation of public
safety, and the generation thereafter,
this network is self-funded. This network
will be sustainable. It will be upgraded
and maintained in--upgradeable to the
next layer of technology each and every
time at the same time for first
responders across the country. It's truly
historic and all I can do is I want to
thank the public safety stakeholders
across this country. They spoke and asked
for what they needed. We listened and
made sure that as part of this process
for this public-private partnership, we
would get them the network they need for
today and for tomorrow. And that has
happened. And that has happened because
everyone across the public safety family
in the United States has stuck together
to make sure that they have the tools
that they need to be able to respond to
those emergencie. It's a momentous day.
I'm glad to be a part of it and I think
it will change the way that public
safety will respond forever because they
will have the technology that they need
to serve and meet your needs. Thank you.
Thank you TJ. It is now my distinct
pleasure to introduce the Chief
Executive Officer of AT&T;, Mr. Randall
Stephenson, to the podium. Sir?
Thank you Jeff--Chief Johnson, Secretary
Ross, and TJ. It's really good to be here.
And all of us at AT&T;, we really are
honored to work with FirstNet to build a
network for America's police,
firefighters, EMS, and other first
responders that is going to be second to
none. This unprecedented--and it's
unprecedented--public-private investment
in infrastructure makes America a leader
and public safety a national priority.
Our first responders we believe deserve
the very best community cases technology
to help them save lives and to make our
communities safer. That is exactly what
FirstNet gives them. So beginning this
fall, AT&T; will spend forty billion
dollars to build and operate this
network. And in the process we will
create 10,000 new U.S. jobs over the next
two years. FirstNet is a terrific model
for how public-private partnerships can
come together and accomplish really big
things for America. And credit goes to
Chairwoman Swenson and the entire
FirstNet team. These folks ran an
incredibly sophisticated, demanding,
detailed, and a very transparent bidding
process. It was a first-rate process and
Secretary Ross, I'd like to tell you
we're ready to get started. And thank you
for the opportunity.
Thank you Mr. Stephenson. Next it's my
distinct pleasure to introduce the
Chairman of the House Energy Committee
and my fellow Oregonian, Congressman Greg
Walden. Well Jeff, thank you. Thank you
very much for the introduction. It's a
delight to be here. Secretary Ross, TJ,
Randall: thank you for your work on all
of this to make this reality to our
first responders. God bless you for what
you do to keep us safe and save our
lives. Thank you. I also want to thank
David Redl and Ray Baum on our staff
for the great work that they did all
along the way. I want to--I see my former
colleague Henry Waxman here and I think
of the days and nights and weekends we
spent working on this together with Anna
Eshoo and Bob Latta, my vice chair at the
subcommittee at the time, and I know
Marsha Blackburn took over as the
chairwoman of the Subcommittee on
Communications and Technology. It will be
her responsibility to watch and oversee
to make sure that this law that we
passed that's now being implemented
actually produces the fruit that we all
hope occurs. And so our first--
FirstNet folks and our men and women who
wear these uniforms and keep us safe and
secure have the technology that they
deserve and and will take advantage of.
In 2012 when I was serving as chair of
the Subcommittee on Communications and
Technology I had the opportunity to work
with my colleagues to carefully craft
this legislation that would make
FirstNet a reality. I remember hearing
that this was like the last major plank
in the 9/11 Commission findings that had
yet to be implemented and it became our
top priority to figure out how to get it
done. Today with FirstNet's award of the
contract to AT&T;, the product of all that
hard work is realized. Through this
public-private partnership, FirstNet can
begin to deliver on its mission to
provide our first responders with a
nationwide high-speed interoperable
broadband public safety network to equip
our first responders with the same
robust communications capabilities
enjoyed by the rest of the public, and to
provide tools that transcend the limits
of land mobile radios on which they had
for so long relied. Perhaps most
importantly, FirstNet will help deliver
on the final recommendation of that 9/11
Commission's work and bring the most
up-to-date communications capabilities
to our nation's first responders, these
brave men and women who protect us daily
throughout the states, territories, and
tribal lands, in all areas rural, urban,
and in-between. I commend the board of
FirstNet and the FirstNet staff for
their tireless efforts and especially
FirstNet Chair Sue Swenson, FirstNet CEO
Mike Poth, FirstNet President TJ Kennedy,
under whose leadership FirstNet gained
its momentum and delivered on this
promise. For more than two decades, my
wife and I were in the small market
radio business. We work closely with
first responders. I'm probably only
chairman of the Energy and Commerce
Committee that's actually wired in
emergency alert system technology in a
radio station. I know the value of having
instant communication. I know the
partnership that we share in a community
to make sure those who need help get it
in a timely manner and those who provide
it can be able to communicate with each
other. So thank you all who worked on
this. This is a huge step forward that
will create jobs, build infrastructure,
and become self-funding, all along
providing the most incredible technology
known to humankind to the people who
need it most. So I commend the leaders of
the public safety community. Without
their efforts in this, in the years
leading up to the creation of FirstNet,
we would not be here today. And I also
want to thank Federal Communications
Commission and especially under the able
leadership of Ajit Pai as they work and
do their part in this as well. Thank you
all and godspeed in getting this off
the ground.
Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would like to
invite the Chairwoman of the House
Subcommittee, Congresswoman Marsha
Blackburn, to say a few words if you
would please. Good morning, and we are so
thrilled to be able to join you all
today and to say thank you to those of
you who risked your lives and to be able
to say you know what, we celebrate
solving a problem that was recognized,
was defined, and Chairman Walden came
forward with the solution. And on behalf
of the American people, it's a solution
that is going to work, that is going to
bring safety to our communities, to our
streets, and allow our first responders,
who now can be knitted together, to
provide the type of safety that is
expected, to provide the type response
that is expected. So Mr. Secretary, we
thank you for the invitation to be here
today. And to Sue Swenson and Mike Poth
and TJ Kennedy, we say thank you for the
efforts in making this happen. And Mr.
Stephenson, we're pleased that AT&T; was a
part of this process and will be a part
of the process of building out this
network and helping to bring forward the
realization that yes indeed, government
and the private sector can work together
and bring about solutions that are going
to serve the American people on a daily,
weekly, and even an hourly basis. So we
look forward to continuing the work with
you all. There is still much to be done.
Our efforts at the Subcommittee on
Communications and Technology will be
led by Congresswoman Susan Brooks who is
here on this stage with us today, and we
appreciate the opportunity to be a part
of this process. Thank you.
Thank you Madam Chair. Now please help me
welcome the Chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission, Mr. Ajit Pai.
Thank you Vice Chair Johnson for the
introduction. Thank you to Secretary Ross
for the invitation. Thank you to our
public safety officials for being here
today. The first task of any government,
of any nation is to keep its people safe.
That is increasingly a challenge in
the digital age. Among other things 9/11
revealed vulnerabilities in our public
safety communications system and those
vulnerabilities, those gaps can make the
difference between life and death.
Congress addressed this problem in 2012
when they sought the creation of a
nationwide interoperable public safety
network, an initiative to be led by FirstNet.
I know that elected officials, public
safety officials, and others recognized
at the time how much work had to be done.
They embrace the spirit of Lao Tzu, the
ancient Chinese philosopher who said, "a
journey of a thousand miles begins with
one step." Well, step by step, they--we--are
getting there. So I'm honored today to
join Secretary Ross, Chairman Greg Walden,
and many others in congratulating
FirstNet. To its board led by Chairwoman
Sue Swenson, to its president TJ Kennedy,
and to its CEO Mike Poth, and to the
members of the board, thank you for your
efforts that led to where we are today.
Today's signing ceremony is the capstone
to many years of hard work by the
public safety community, and so I'd like
to thank them as well, and especially
Chief Harlin McEwen for helping us get
to this point. I'd also like to thank all
those in Congress who acted on a
bipartisan basis to get this project off
the ground. Chairman Walden, Senator
Rockefeller, Chairman Blackburn, former
Congressman Waxman, and others engaged in
a strong bipartisan effort to get this
across the finish line. And finally I'd
like to congratulate AT&T; for being
selected as the entity that will build
out the network. For our part, the FCC
remains committed to supporting FirstNet
and the public safety community. We have
given FirstNet a license for 20
megahertz of spectrum and the 700 megahertz
band. We have submitted basic technical
requirements for the network that
FirstNet will construct. And our spectrum
auctions have reproduced billions of
dollars that will be used to fund
construction of the public safety
network. Going forward we look forward to
working with FirstNet and members of
Congress and others in the public safety
community to doing what we can to help
ensure the success of this project. You
know each and every day we count on
public safety professionals. They put
their lives on the line so that we can
be safe. That's why we owe it to them to
provide them with the tools they need to
get the job done. And a world-class
modern technology network is one such
tool. And so I'm pleased to be here this
morning to celebrate the significant
achievement. The journey of a thousand
miles may not be over yet, but this is a
major milestone toward getting there.
Thank you for having me this morning.
Thank you Chairman Pai. And finally most
importantly we have representatives from
public safety here to make some comments
and I hope you'll join me in welcoming
to the podium Chief James Schwartz who is
actually a incident commander on 9/11 at
the Pentagon and a dear and trusted
friend. And Mr. Darrell Stephens. Please
join me at the podium. Good morning. I
hail from Arlington County which is a
jurisdiction right across the river from
the District of Columbia here in the
national capital region, and I have the
high privilege of serving as the Deputy
County Manager for Public Safety.
Previous to that I served 32
years with the Arlington County Fire
Department, including the last 11 as
chief of the department. I'm very proud
to represent the men and women of public
safety from Arlington County which has
approximately 300 career firefighters
and almost 400 sworn law enforcement
officers. We are part of the national
capital region, which is a specially
designated area that provides support to
our federal seat of government. And I
think as we look at the events of taking
on FirstNet as an important
accompaniment to the mission that we
provide to our communities, it's
important to acknowledge that
the densely populated metro areas need
responders that can seamlessly
communicate across a number of platforms.
We saw no greater need for this than on
September 11, 2001, when this region came
together along with the support of
assets specialized capabilities from all
across the country. Urban search and
rescue teams that hailed from Tennessee--
Congresswoman--all the way out to New
Mexico and support teams that came from
as far away as California, that needed to
be able to communicate with us on our
local platforms in order to provide the
kind of support that was necessary in
that large-scale response. That unified
effort on September 11th was limited not
by the abilities, by the professionalism
of our first responders, but in many
cases by our
ability to communicate with each other.
FirstNet will provide the ability for
all of us on a both--on a daily basis as
well as when we face the kind of
national crisis that September 11th
represents, be able to communicate with
each other in new ways that quite
frankly today we can't even completely
foresee. The advent of video, the advent
of the use of data, putting devices in
the hands of responders that enable them
to understand better what it is they are
facing and better deal with the
challenges that--the threats that have--
that were represented by 9/11 and have
come since then, we face on an all too-
common basis. For us the tools
that FirstNet will put in our hands is
really a revelation. It's a new
generation of tools and capabilities
that will complement the dedication that
the men and women of public safety
across this country have to serve their
communities. We actually hope not to see
the kind of incidents that we
experienced from September 11th in the
future, but if we do, these tools will be
essential to our success to serve our
communities. I want to thank Congress for
their foresight to be able to support
this effort. I want to thank the FirstNet
board for all of their efforts to
continue through this long process to
get us where we are here today. I want to
congratulate AT&T; for taking on this
this project in partnership with with
the government. And I certainly want to
thank Secretary Ross on behalf of the
United States government for their
participation in this partnership. Thank
you all very much.
Good morning. Secretary Ross, public
safety colleagues, and guests: It is a
long awaited privilege to be here today
representing the largest police agencies
in our country, the Major Cities Chiefs.
Since the tragic events of September 11,
the September 11th attacks, we've worked with
Congress and now three presidents to
bring forward a national public safety
network. Major cities have been a leading
advocate of the national broadband
communications network because it'll
solve the problems that we've faced for
decades. The planned system will finally
ensure interoperability between multiple
agencies that removes a barrier that's
just totally unacceptable in this era of
new technology. Public safety agencies
will now have tools that have never been
before possible: applications and other
connected devices that can dramatically
improve communication and collaboration
among many different officers and
agencies that come together to serve our
communities during emergencies. As the
largest public safety agencies, we're the
biggest advocates for FirstNet and soon
to become the biggest customers. That's
why we have been so deeply involved in
this process for many years. The chiefs
from major metropolitan areas all
joined as one voice with our public
safety colleagues: major county sheriffs,
fire chiefs, emergency medical services,
all collaborated to help make this
possible. And that's--that's why I'm
here today. We want to commend Secretary
Ross for moving forward into the
implementation of this all-important
network. We're not only provision--
familiar with the provisions of the
legislation, we were the advocates that
helped negotiate these provisions with
Congress. Please know that we're fully
committed and pledged to work with
FirstNet organization during this
implementation phase. You can count on
the nation's largest cities to
support the efforts. Today's
announcements marks a milestone for
FirstNet. By choosing a partner to build
the network FirstNet has moved from a
planning phase to implementation. The
advantages of state of the art
technology will soon be on the hands
of the men and women in public safety,
and we do look forward to working with
our new partner in AT&T.; With this
partnership now in place, FirstNet will
deliver on the promise to public safety
so that cutting-edge, life-saving
technology can get into the hands of our
police and first responders as soon as
possible. We're eager to engage our
commercial partner AT&T; who will build
and operate the network. As you expect we
have many questions and concerns about
features, services, and costs. Our thanks
go to Mike Poth, FirstNet CEO, and TJ Kennedy.
In the first step President TJ Kennedy
has worked with us over the past several
years very closely to keep us informed
at every step of this process and make
clear that the new network will
reflect our needs and priorities. This is
an example of Washington looking to the
front lines for direction, not the other
way around, and that speaks volumes to
how this new national network will be
designed and operated. When I began my
career as a young police officer in
Kansas City, it was an everyday reality
that we were unable to talk to emergency
services in the agencies surrounding
Kansas City. The new innovation was a
handheld radio that didn't always work
when you need it. So that--to move forward
to today, I served as police chief in
five different cities, on 9/11 was the
police chief in Charlotte-Mecklenburg,
and we could have used the kind of
equipment and technology at that time.
All across the country. We
were not directly attacked but we were
engaging our emergency services in
anticipation of what might happen, because
as you recall, we just simply did not
know. When I was in Charlotte I also served
as the president of the Major Cities
Chiefs Association in 2007, when we
joined with our partners to try to make
this case of the importance of this
network to Congressmen and people in
the administration. And Congress
responded. The subsequent
administrations responded. And today
we're in a position to where that vision
can truly become a reality for America.
When we began this journey years ago, we
couldn't clearly see what the
destination was ahead, but we can see it
now. But it's going to require the same
kind of collaboration that got us to
here. We haven't built it yet. Building it
is going to be--we think what we've done
has been hard. That next phase is going
to be even more challenging. And if we
don't have the collaboration that we had
to get here, then it's not going to be
possible for us to achieve that vision
that is so important to all of us.
Godspeed.
Thank you Chiefs. And now could we please
have Secretary Ross, Mr. Stephenson, and
FirstNet CEO Mike Poth take seats at the
table for the signing of the commitment
to public safety document with the
establishment of the public-private
partnership.
               
You might have missed the best part of
the day when Mr. Stephenson turns to Mr.
Ross and says, "40 billion dollars." And
Secretary Ross says, "46.5." Thank you all
and thank you again to Secretary Ross
for hosting today. We appreciate your
attendance here today and I especially
appreciate my brothers and sisters in
public safety that made the trip to show
your support for FirstNet. So with that,
that concludes today's event. Thank you
all.