Washington, DC (May 8, 2012) – Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Palm Harbor), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications, will host a hearing on Wednesday featuring Annette Doying, Director, Office of Emergency Management for Pasco County, Fla.
The hearing, titled “First Responder Technologies: Ensuring a Prioritized Approach for Homeland Security Research and Development,” will address the needs of state and local first responders, and will examine how to best enable them to assist during emergencies.
“Our nation’s first responders play a vital role in securing our homeland and mitigating loss in the wake of a disaster,” Bilirakis said. “State and local level officials are the first on the scene of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other emergency and we must ensure that they have the training, equipment, and technology they need to get the job done.”
A live online webcast of the hearing, which begins at 11 a.m., will be available here: http://homeland.house.gov/live-video-feed
thanks for posting this… the joint subcommittee also heard testimony from FDNY’s Chief, along with national experts on the progress that has been made to protect first responders through improvements in equipment and training and policy. This testimony will allow the subcommittees to make more discrete judgements regarding the future funding of these items through the Department of Homeland Security. Protection of first responders is the first line of defense in ensuring that victims of both manmade and natural disasters are helped as quickly and as usefully as possible.