Weighing FirstNet’s future, Congress considers calls for more oversight, emerging technologies

At a House Energy and Commerce hearing on Wednesday, lawmakers and witnesses warned that outdated rules and weak oversight could endanger the future of FirstNet, the public safety communications network that keeps police, firefighters, EMS and 911 systems connected during emergencies.

Draft legislation suggests improvements to the network, including instating stronger oversight, expanding coverage to include more than one provider and ensuring the network is pace with emerging technologies.

AT&T executive Scott Agnew, who also testified during a Senate subcommittee hearing last week, stressed that FirstNet is more than just a telecommunications network, but essential digital infrastructure for the nation.

“Prior to FirstNet, first responders relied on a patchwork of incompatible radio systems and congested commercial networks. In disasters or mass crowd events, commercial networks often become overloaded, leaving public safety agencies struggling to communicate,” Agnew said during his testimony Wednesday. “FirstNet is not merely another wireless network, but a mission-critical infrastructure asset for the nation’s public safety community.”

Michael Dame, associate director of public safety communications at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is proposed to manage the FirstNet Authority under the draft proposal, said repeated audits showed FirstNet’s “operational independence” has eroded how contract performance, compliance and reinvestment decisions are reviewed.

A 2024 audit by the Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General suggests that FirstNet’s governance structure could use stronger oversight mechanisms. The report criticized the partnership between First Responder Network Authority, the independent federal body that governs the network, and its contracted partner, AT&T, arguing that the program has failed to “develop an adequate performance metric to accurately measure public safety use and adoption.”

“Strengthening and clarifying these lines of accountability would better ensure that oversight of the network provider is consistent, transparent, and firmly grounded in FirstNet’s public safety mission” Dame told lawmakers.

Agnew opposed changes to FirstNet Authority’s independent status, arguing that “no large-scale infrastructure project is without challenges or opportunities for improvement,” but that the board’s performance evaluations are sufficient.

The FirstNet Authority releases an annual report to Congress, which highlights benchmark achievements, network build and progress, such as the Fiscal Year 2024 report, which showed the network deployed more than 2,250 portable cell equipment and signal enhancement devices across 29,000 participating public safety agencies.

“FirstNet stands alone in the industry in subjecting itself to such rigorous and public oversight,” Agnew told congressional leaders. “We conduct internal assessments and gather valuable input from public safety stakeholders. Both the oversight and program governance combine to drive continuous enhancements to the program and ensures FirstNet meets the evolving needs of public safety.”

To improve oversight, Dame also recommended restructuring FirstNet to more closely align with NTIA and the Department of Commerce, saying clearer authority would improve security, performance and long-term planning. He argued that FirstNet’s reauthorization is a chance for lawmakers to modernize the network’s governance, while preserving what works.

“Those efficiencies would help ensure that more resources are directed toward improving network performance and public safety outcomes, rather than unnecessary bureaucracy” Dame said.

Congress created the First Responder Network Authority in 2012, about a decade after the September 11th attacks, to bridge the gap between public safety agencies that sometimes struggled to communicate during major emergencies. The network gives first responders priority access to ensure they can always communicate.

“This failure to communicate cost lives,” Michael Adkinson, a sheriff from Walton County, Florida, who chairs FirstNet’s board, told lawmakers on Wednesday. “The network provides capabilities that public safety did not previously have, including 24/7 priority and preemption for first responders, nationwide interoperability, a dedicated core, and scalable broadband capacity for mission-critical applications.”

Adkinson’s testimony comes a day after the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the country, sent a letter to congressional leaders on the committee urging them to reauthorize the network, but advised against “unnecessary, overly prescriptive, or duplicative requirements that could hinder FirstNet’s operational effectiveness.”

The sheriff also called for FirstNet’s reauthorization with clearer governance and expanded reinvestment authority to keep pace with evolving technology and threats, even as public safety moves toward AI-enabled tools and data analytics. The law establishing FirstNet, which mandates the program be self-funding, currently limits reinvestment to the network core or radio access network to reduce dead zones for first responders.

“While this made sense in 2012 during the launch of 4G LTE, as we move toward software-driven and AI-enabled capabilities, we risk locking FirstNet into technologies that were state-of-the-art 14 years ago,” he said.

With FirstNet’s legal authority expiring next February, Adkinson urged Congress not to wait too long before approving its reauthorization.

“It would be hard to overstate the potential risk to public safety if that trust were eroded by a failure of reauthorization,” he said.