Bill Pascrell Quotes

States are looking for low-cost solutions that will enable better communication, while avoiding the danger in which the chain of command breaks down in emergencies. We do not want everyone talking to everyone else all the time.

In terms of responders to a national disaster those first responders must be able to talk to each other…. They are still not able to do so.

Radio interoperability is essential for our police, fire, and emergency medical service departments to communicate with each other in times of emergency.

It's so important to talk to the first responders.

Firefighters don't go on strike.

The backbone of our nation's domestic defense against terrorist attacks will continue to be the men and women in local law enforcement and emergency services.

I'll continue to work to ensure that safety and I am honored to have earned the endorsement of the men and women who provide public safety in our city.

First responders will be on the frontlines if there is a terrorist attack in our communities, and we must provide them with the tools they need to do their difficult jobs.

Connecticut's first responders and defense workers work every day to help us achieve these goals.

As everyone in Louisiana knows, there was often no communication or coordination between the state and federal government in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

We have to make a determination of what the minimum standards are for police, fire and emergency services in all of America's major cities. Once we determine that, then we can decide what the funding is.

The availability of reliable and redundant communications is critical for our public safety.

Four years after 9/11 it is scandalous that police and firefighters in large cities still cannot communicate reliably in a major crisis. It is scandalous that airline passengers are still not screened against all names on a terrorist watch list. It is scandalous that we still allocate scarce homeland security dollars on the basis of pork barrel spending, not risk.

The time when people really want government is in an emergency.

911 rings at the mayor’s office, not at the Justice Department or the White House.

We are connecting everything to everything

Things happen so quickly. We don't have time for one person to tell everybody what to do. Everybody needs to know what to do in those situations.

I want to see the free movement of our ambos being able to get to and from where they need to be, I need our firies out fighting fires, and I need our police out doing their job as well.

Anyone who's ever been around an emergency in Manhattan realizes that there are plainclothes officers on these streets walking past us more than we ever realize.

We don't think about the first responders until we need them. Like I don't unconsciously think everyday about these people and their lives, but that is what they are doing.

Many communities throughout the nation still do not have the communications infrastructure in place for first responders to communicate with one another during an emergency.

If you forget about the money issue for just a minute, if it's possible to do that - because these are people's livelihoods we're talking about - and you look at Internet in terms of the most amazing broadcasting network ever built, then it's completely different. In some ways, that's the best way of looking at it.

If there is an event for whatever reason, which interferes with the Internet or network communications, are people able to deal with it? It seems like our dependency on these systems is so great that the room for maneuver as it were is very small. So that is problematic.

Uptown living, you've got to call 911. Where I am, I am 911.

I think, in general, it's clear that most bad things come from misunderstanding, and communication is generally the way to resolve misunderstandings - and the Web's a form of communications - so it generally should be good.