WASHINGTON-Key Republican and Democratic senators officially unveiled legislation overhauling the nation’s half-century-old emergency warning system by tapping into wireless and other digital technologies to alert citizens in real time to emergency situations.
The introduction of the Warning, Alerts, and Response Network Act was announced late Thursday by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on disaster prevention and prediction, and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), ranking member of the panel, even as another monster hurricane-Rita-was closing in on Gulf states.
Co-sponsoring the measure are Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Co-Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), and Sens. David Vitter (R-La.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.). Lott’s coastal Mississippi home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
“Without a way to properly alert those in danger, even the most accurate of disaster predictions is useless,” said DeMint. “We need an effective and consistent method to warn Americans when their life is at risk, and this bill will allow us to establish the needed alerts. While the warnings in advance of Katrina were very widely disseminated, we learned that the threat to life continues after the storm passes. The WARN Act will provide tools to alert communities about the provision of ice, water and other life-sustaining resources.”
The bill, among other things, would:
- Establish a network for the transmission of alerts across a broad variety of media, including cell phones, Blackberrys and other wireless devices; digital, analog, cable and satellite television, and radio networks; as well as nontraditional media such as sirens and “radios-on-a-stick.”
- Provide federal, state and local emergency managers with alert tools and the ability to send out geographically targeted alerts only to those communities at risk.
- Establish a grant program to help remote communities install sirens and other devices because of the lack of quality telecommunications infrastructure, ensuring that individuals in communities in “tornado alley,” some of which may not have high cell-phone penetration, still get warnings about threatening storms.
- Provide at least $250 million for the research, development and deployment of technologies and equipment to operate the alert systems.
“Co-Chairman Inouye and I have worked closely with Sens. DeMint and Nelson to develop a bipartisan all-hazards alert bill that we believe will have a significant impact on all Americans. I come from a generation that had only a radio-based emergency notification system,” said Stevens. “But today with so much new technology we do not have a uniform mechanism to contact our people in a time of crisis. We believe this bill overcomes that obstacle, allowing public-safety officials to communicate with people through all forms of communication devices during a terrorist attack or natural disaster.”
Unlike earlier drafts of the bill, which had the Department of Homeland Security controlling funding and otherwise playing a major role in the establishment of a new national emergency alert system, the new legislation puts the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the lead.
DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been under fire by Republicans and Democrats alike for their handling of Hurricane Katrina, with some lawmakers now pushing to remove FEMA from DHS and have it operate independently as it did before DHS was created in 2002 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Some lawmakers have criticized the Bush administration for failing to modernize the current public-warning system-developed during the Cold War-in the four years since the terrorist strikes on U.S. soil.
The Federal Communications Commission has a year-old rulemaking that envisions changes to the emergency alert system. But FCC action in the rulemaking is apt to be further delayed as a result of the DeMint-Nelson legislation.
FEMA, meantime, is working with mobile-phone carriers and public TV stations to develop a national digital platform for emergency alerts that can be used across all communications platforms.
“With communications technology rapidly advancing, it only makes sense to explore ways to utilize that technology to communicate warnings and alert citizens to the dangers present during crisis situations,” said Nelson. “Though natural disasters like hurricanes usually come with some warning, using a system like this would be helpful in responding to unexpected crises like terrorist attacks and man-made disasters.”
Participation in the revamped emergency alert system would continue to be voluntary, but the legislation requires mobile-phone carriers electing not to participate in the transmission of emergency alerts to disclose that fact to potential customers at the point of sale. An earlier version of the bill dropped the notice provision as requested by the cell-phone industry.
The DeMint-Nelson bill calls for establishing a national program office within NOAA. The director of the program will assemble and chair a high-level working group composed of officials from NOAA, FEMA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Federal Communications Commission and eight representatives from state and local government. Working group membership will be open to communications service providers and vendors as well. Together they will craft technical and operational guidelines for the all-hazards emergency alert system.
The legislation is unclear on when the new warning system will become operational. The program director must file an initial progress report to the president and key congressional committees 15 months after the bill becomes law. By that time, the director is to apprise the White House and Congress of the anticipated date on which the system will be activated.
At least one mobile-phone carrier believes it already has a solution in hand. Airadigm Communications is poised to announce it will become the first wireless phone carrier in the nation to offer cellular emergency alert service warnings to its customers and roaming subscribers on their cell phones in Appleton, Wis.
“This is a significant step for the United States, and we applaud Airadigm for its leadership,” said Mark Wood, head of the international Cellular Emergency Alert Services Association, which certifies the operation of the demonstration as compliant with international CEASa standards. “The Cellular EAS2 system can be deployed quickly and inexpensively on most wireless phone networks. We look forward to the time when all cell-phone customers have this life-saving feature available.”
The DeMint-Nelson bill requires the new emergency warning system to be accessible to persons with disabilities, while forbidding the new warning regime from interfering with warning systems currently operated by federal, state and local officials.
“A good alert system can help spread the word to residents whether they need to prepare for a storm, evacuate or get needed help afterward,” said Vitter. “Hurricane Katrina highlighted the importance of early warnings, and with a system like the WARN Act would create, we can help avoid the confusion and frustration that come with a large-scale disaster.”
Added Landrieu: “It is imperative that we improve the federal response to tragedies like Hurricane Katrina. The best way to protect Americans from natural disasters is to give them enough time to properly prepare. The WARN Act will help ensure our citizens have the warning they need to stay out of harm’s way. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, we need to review our first alert warning system to ensure all residents of communities in harm’s way get the word to take cover or evacuate. This bill is a good first step toward meeting that need.”
