About 70 security industry executives from the Security Industry Association (SIA), the Electronic Security Association (ESA) and The Monitoring Association (TMA) convened on Capitol Hill on March 4-5 for the fourth annual Security Hill Day to advocate for policies that support the growth of tech-focused jobs in our industry and the effectiveness of our work to secure the future and ensure a safer world.
The 2026 Security Hill Day event served as a crucial advocacy tool for the security industry, which contributes over $430 billion to the economy and provides more than 2.1 million jobs in the United States. Each year, this event gives leaders a chance to discuss the economic impact that they have in each congressional district, state and across the United States.
At the 2026 event, executives also underlined the important work they do to protect our country, our citizens and our economy, especially in light of the security needs for protecting large upcoming events such as the 2026 World Cup, 2028 Olympic Games and America 250 celebrations.
Congressional Guests and Awardees
At a breakfast prior to the day’s meetings, attendees were joined by Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) of the House Homeland Security Committee. The legislators spoke attendees about the valuable work they do to support policies that enhance security and life safety across the United States.
Also at the event, SIA recognized Brett Feddersen, Gene Fullano and John Steele as the 2026 recipients of the SIA Industry Advocate Award.
The SIA Industry Advocate Award recognizes SIA member volunteers for their extraordinary contributions of professional time, leadership and resources to position SIA and its members to address the public policy challenges impacting the security industry. We are incredibly grateful to this year’s awardees for their outstanding leadership and support of SIA’s government relations initiatives at Security Hill Day.
Policy Priorities
Policy priorities this year included:
- A request to protect the lower 900 MHz band;
- A request to fully fund important safety grant programs, including the School Violence Prevention Program and the School Safety Enhancement Grant Program;
- Support for the implementation of important counter-UAS legislation and ideas on how to further expand authorities for trained security personnel; and
- Support for the development of a national data privacy framework and artificial intelligence policy that allows society to harness the benefits of AI and other new technologies for enhancing safety and security.
Protecting the Lower 900 MHz Band
The security industry’s top priority is for legislators to help protect the lower 900 MHz band, a band of spectrum from 902-928 MHz that is used by millions of part 15 devices, including alarm, electronic access and security camera technologies, among other security and life safety equipment essential for protecting homes, small businesses and critical infrastructure.
The security industry, multiple other users of the band and major public safety associations oppose a petition before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) (docket WTB 24-240) that seeks to roll back a non-interference requirement in the lower 900 MHz band to enable the petitioner to use the spectrum for high-power operations.
The petitioner, a company named NextNav, purports that the band should be restructured and they should be granted exclusive license for the implementation of a backup GPS service, despite the fact that other viable non-interfering alternatives exist (docket WTB 25-110).
If this petition for rulemaking is granted and the proposed high-power network is deployed, millions of devices that are critical for the public safety and protection of American life will simply stop working properly.
For Security Hill Day, industry executives were able to raise awareness of the vast public safety and security uses in the lower 900 MHz band to 55 different congressional offices, as we simultaneously continue to advocate before the FCC that they dismiss the petition and preserve the rules protecting public use of the band.
Lauren Bresette is senior manager of government relations for the Security Industry Association (SIA).
