FCC Moves to Improve Emergency Alert System

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on July 12, 2018, to improve the emergency alert system by advancing a new policy to prevent future false alarms by requiring relevant state, local, and tribal agencies to report all false emergency alerts to the commission.

The measure was first proposed by FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel during a hearing in Honolulu led by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i).

“I thank Chairman Pai and the FCC for taking additional steps today to fix our wireless and broadcast emergency alert systems by requiring relevant government agencies to report all false alarms,” said Sen.r Schatz, lead Democrat on the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet. “In particular, I cannot understate the importance of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel’s participation during our hearing in Honolulu and leadership to make sure the discussion at the hearing resulted in real action at the FCC. We still have more work to do to get this right, but we’re making good progress on fixing our Emergency Alert System.”