The NTIA’s Laura Pettus was the final speaker at the APCO International Public Safety Broadband Summit on Tuesday, May 15.

“We are outcome driven,” said Pettus. “What can we say we’ve accomplished?”

Pettus gave a brief overview of the public safety funding provisions of H.R. 3630. Section 6207 of the Act grants NTIA borrowing authority not to exceed $2B to implement Subtitle B – Governance of Public Safety Spectrum. Section 6301 of the Act grants NTIA borrowing authority not to exceed $135M to implement Section 6302 – State and Local Implementation. In each case, NTIA borrows the initial funds from the general fund of the Treasury prior to the deposit of auction proceeds into the Public Safety Trust Fund (PSTF).

Amounts deposited in the PSTF are funds from the incentive auctions to be carried out by the FCC under 47 U.S.C. § 309(j)(8)(G) or the auction of spectrum pursuant to Section 6401.

Funds deposited in the PSTF are available on a cascading order of priority:

• Repayment of amounts borrowed by NTIA – up to $2B
• Repayment of amounts borrowed by NTIA – up to $135M
• Buildout of PSBN in the amount of $7B minus amount borrowed initially by NTIA (Section 6207 of the $2B)
• Public Safety Research and Development – $100M
• Deficit Reduction – $20.4B
• 911, E911, and NG911 – $115M
• Additional Public Safety Research – $200M
• Any additional deficit reduction

Pettus noted that PSTF may not be the first fund to receive auction proceeds.

She then spent time discussing the information the NTIA hopes to learn from the Request for Information (RFI) it released this week. It’s available on the NTIA website at http://www.ntia.doc.gov. Responses will be due in mid June.

The RFI covers many topics, including:

• Consultation Process
• Existing Public Safety Governance and Planning Activities
• Leveraging Existing Infrastructure
• Grant Activities
• Funding Allocation and Match
• Other

Download her presentation here: APCO – Session Public Safety Funding HR3630 (5-15-12)

Laura Pettus