Federal Communications Commission FCC 10-67 
 
STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER MEREDITH ATTWELL BAKER 
 
Re:       In the Matter of Establishment of an Emergency Response Interoperability Center 
  
 
I support the creation of the Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC) within the Federal 
Communications Commission.  ERIC will complement the work of the public safety community and 
other federal resources as together we advance the goal of national interoperable communications. 
 
I expect that once in place, ERIC’s leadership will move quickly to build upon the groundwork of 
successful collaboration on interoperability issues that have already been laid.  I also expect that ERIC’s 
leaders will maintain and improve the strong working relationships that already exist between federal 
agencies and the members of the public safety community, whose work on interoperability has to date 
been invaluable and shows support in the future will be vital.   
 
In particular, I will be looking to ERIC to leverage, and not duplicate or overtake, the working 
relationships between federal agencies like the Department of Commerce/NTIA Institute for 
Telecommunications Services, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, the Department of 
Homeland Security and many others that already exist.  I also hope that ERIC can find new ways to 
increase the involvement of state and local experts.   
 
To this end, it is my expectation that appropriate steps will be taken quickly to form a representative 
advisory council for ERIC to ensure state and local public safety perspectives are adequately heard and 
that a formal working relationships will promptly be established with relevant federal partners. 
 
In addition to maintaining and improving these working relationships, ERIC will need to define its role in 
technology development.  It is imperative that ERIC not supplant the work of the industry-led standards 
bodies in this regard.  There is no substitute for collaborative standards development if we seek to have a 
truly interoperable national communications infrastructure. 
 
By promoting active broad-based collaboration on interoperability issues and the development of 
standards-based solutions to meet the needs of public safety, ERIC, and the Commission, can perform a 
valuable leadership role in achieving national interoperable public safety communications.