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                                  STATEMENT OF

                            CHAIRMAN KEVIN J. MARTIN

   Re: Recommendations of the Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of
   Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks, EB Docket No. 06-119

   I would like to thank the members of the Independent Panel for taking the
   time to study the impact of Hurricane Katrina on communications networks.
   I would also like to thank Nancy Victory for agreeing to Chair the
   Independent Panel. We all appreciate the hard work that went into studying
   the lessons of this terrible disaster and developing recommendations for
   improving our response in the future.

   The devastation of Hurricane Katrina highlighted the importance of
   telecommunications and media to our daily lives, and our dependency on our
   national communications infrastructure. For the past six months, experts
   from public safety organizations, the communications industry, and public
   interest groups have worked together to study the impact of Hurricane
   Katrina on the telecommunications and media infrastructure and to review
   the sufficiency of the recovery effort with respect to this
   infrastructure.

   In its final report, the Independent Panel has presented recommendations
   for increasing the readiness of the communications industry, improving
   response and recovery after major disasters, enhancing the operability and
   interoperability of public safety and 911 communications, and
   strengthening our emergency alert communications. I am particularly
   pleased to see the Independent Panel's recommendations to provide a
   Readiness Checklist for the communications industry, to inform the public
   safety community about technologies to improve the operability and
   interoperability of their communications, to strengthen the resiliency of
   Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and other 911 infrastructure, and
   to take actions to ensure the public gets timely information in times of
   emergency.

   With this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, we are asking for comments and
   suggestions from the public on how to best address and implement the
   Independent Panel's recommendations. I look forward to studying the
   Independent Panel's report and to reviewing the public's responses for
   additional follow-up action so that we can improve our response and
   recovery efforts for the future.

   Federal Communications Commission FCC 06-83