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Policy Division

  • Thomas J. Beers, Chief

    Thomas J. Beers is Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau's Policy Division. A Minnesota native, he earned a B.A. in Humanities from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) where he was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., in 1981. Tom began his professional career later that year at a small communications law firm, eventually joining the national telecommunications practice group at the Washington offices of Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. He left private practice to join the Federal Communications Commission in 1988, serving as staff attorney in the Enforcement and Accounting and Audits Divisions of the (former) Common Carrier Bureau, and also as Legal Advisor to that Bureau's Chief. Tom joined PSHSB at its inception, after serving for ten years as a Deputy Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau's Industry Analysis and Technology Division (1996-2006).

  • Carol Simpson, Deputy Chief
  • Zenji Nakazawa, Associate Chief
Policies
FCC Headquarters, Washington DC

The Policy Division serves the public interest by developing policies that advance public safety communications for first responders, health care, 9-1-1 services and persons with disabilities. These policy areas include 9-1-1/E 9-1-1, operability and interoperability, communications infrastructure protection, network security and reliability. In addition, the Policy Division oversees the licensing of spectrum for public safety entities.

Policy Areas Include:

Outreach Events:

Emergency Alert System: Promoting an Effective Emergency Alert System on the Road to a Next Generation EAS