The Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose self-declared lack of legal authority in managing aspects of a new emergency alert regime that has created friction with the Federal Communications Commission, is coming under greater congressional scrutiny.
“The executive order directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to create a comprehensive public alert and warning system for the United States. I worry that progress has been slow in making this system,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on emergency communications, preparedness and response, in a statement at a May 14 hearing. President Bush’s June 2006 directive put DHS, the huge agency in which FEMA and many other departments are housed, in charge of improving a Cold War-era emergency alert system that remains largely broadcast-based even as reforms are pursued.
Cuellar applauded the FCC’s recent approval of technical guidelines for cellphone emergency text alerts – as required by the WARN Act – and said he looked forward to the development of a commercial mobile alert system “for the millions of people in America that are attached to their cellphones and BlackBerries.” While the congressionally mandated mobile alert system is voluntary, major wireless operators said they will participate. The FCC must establish a process for carriers to elect whether to transmit emergency alerts to subscribers by Aug. 9.
FEMA had a rougher time at last week’s hearing, with lawmakers reportedly frustrated that FEMA is not further along in developing the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. IPAWS will be a digital platform capable of supporting emergency alert distribution by cellular carriers and other communications service providers.
Cuellar, according to his staff, asked FEMA Assistant Administrator Martha Rainville to outline to the subcommittee by next week which goals and timetables in the Bush executive order have been achieved and to explain any shortcomings.
“We cannot do everything at once so later this year we are rolling out the first increment to support digital alerts,” said Rainville in written testimony. “Later on, we will roll out additional increments to support risk-based alerts, non-English language alerts and alerts for special-needs communities. Throughout the increments FEMA will improve the resilience and the security of IPAWS.”
One message, many ways
Rainville added that FEMA and its partners “are transforming the alert system from an audio-only signal sent on radios and televisions to one that can support audio, video, text and data messages sent to residential telephones, to Web sites, to pagers, to e-mail accounts and to cellphones. The mission of the IPAWS program management office is: ‘Send one message over more channels to more people at all times and places.’ “
At the hearing, Cuellar also asked Rainville if FEMA needs additional legislation to help carry out its duties related to IPAWS deployment.
In a Feb. 19 filing with the FCC, less than two months before the commission adopted technical rules for the commercial mobile alert system, Rainville said FEMA lacked statutory authority during non-emergency periods to be involved with critical components of the commercial mobile alert system, including aggregator and gateway functions as well as the trust model, when warnings are issued by non-federal agencies.
In the FCC’s commercial mobile alert ruling on April 9, Chairman Kevin Martin said it would have been better if a federal entity were in place to oversee alert aggregator and gateway functions. Commissioner Michael Copps was more critical of FEMA in his statement, triggering an angry response the following day.
“It is unfortunate that Commissioner Copps chose to question FEMA’s role and responsibility without first talking with the agency’s administrator before making his provocative comments,” said FEMA in a statement. The statement said Copps mischaracterized FEMA as an unwilling partner in the process to reform the nation’s public warning system. FEMA also accused Copps of failing to mention the FEMA’s apparent lack of clear legal authority during non-emergency periods to manage the commercial mobile alert system.
Meantime, Reps. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) introduced legislation that appears to duplicate emergency alert modernization efforts already begun by FEMA and the FCC. It is unclear, however, whether the bipartisan bill gives FEMA what it seems to need most at the present time: legal clarity the agency said it needs to assume the federal aggregator role for the commercial mobile alert system during non-emergencies. Cuellar may have to fill that void.
“The deadly tornados that swept across Missouri and several other states … emphasize just how important it is to have a fast and effective warning system in place to alert people of impending disasters,” Graves said. “Receiving a timely disaster warning can literally mean the difference between life and death.” The bill authorizes $37 million for FEMA in fiscal 2009 to implement bill’s provisions.
