When it comes to public safety, resiliency is paramount in communications, particularly in a time of crisis. In the coming year, Congress has an opportunity to fix a program intended to help first responders communicate more efficiently in emergencies, but in critical moments, it has fallen short.

The First Responder Network Authority was established by Congress in 2012 with a sunset in 2027. Congress now faces a key question set up by that 2012 law: What changes need to be made to ensure that FirstNet reflects the current public safety communications environment? The simple fact is that America’s technological landscape has changed dramatically over time. New technologies, from sophisticated data applications to the burgeoning use of drones by first responders, have transformed how public safety officers save lives. With these new technologies comes a new vulnerability: the risk of a single point of failure.

This challenge is magnified by a foundational dynamic of the program: The “FirstNet network” is entirely owned and operated by a single telecommunications provider, AT&T. Given the magnitude of the scale and complexity of the public safety challenges facing our first responders, consolidating this risk with one provider could result in the network’s failure when police officers, firefighters and other emergency response personnel need it the most to save lives. As we have seen several times in recent years, most recently earlier this month, even the most sophisticated wireless........

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