Police and Other Groups Urge Congress to Renew FirstNet, Remove 2027 Sunset
The Fraternal Order of Police said Monday that it, the National League of Cities and 15 other public safety and local government groups are urging House and Senate leaders to permanently renew the FirstNet Authority before its current mandate sunsets in 2027. The Government Accountability Office recommended last year that Congress reauthorize FirstNet, saying failure to renew would result in significant disruption to first responders (see 2405200035).
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“It is imperative that the lifesaving work of the FirstNet Authority last long into the future,” the groups said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and their Democratic counterparts. The current 2027 sunset, which Congress instituted when it authorized FirstNet in 2012, “creates a very uncertain future for the national public safety broadband network and all the advances made in public safety communications since the FirstNet Authority was established.”
FirstNet “has allowed our first responders to worry less about connectivity and focus more on their lifesaving missions,” FOP and the other groups said. “Public safety is already struggling with rising costs and staff turnover. If dedicated and reliable connectivity is one less thing we must worry about, then the result will be more lives saved. The FirstNet Authority must not be allowed to lapse and should have long-term certainty about its future.”