Schatz, Thune File Readi Act to Address EAS Issues ID'd in Hawaii False Alert
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., filed the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (Readi) Act Wednesday in a bid to further address emergency alert system issues highlighted by a January…
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false alarm in Hawaii (see 1801160054). The bill, which Schatz previewed during an April hearing, would require the FCC set best practices for delivering emergency alerts in a bid to streamline the alerting process. It would update the process for creating and approving state plans and examine the feasibility of expanding EAS to also distribute warnings to online streaming services (see 1804050055). “Even though it was a false alarm, the missile alert exposed real flaws in the way people receive emergency alerts,” Schatz said. “Our bill fixes a number of important problems with the system responsible for delivering emergency alerts.” Schatz led filing of the Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats (Alert) Act (S-2385), which the Senate passed in June (see 1802060055, 1802070052 and 1806270001). S-2385 and House companion HR-4965 would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency National Advisory Council's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System subcommittee “make recommendations on the best practices that state and local governments should follow to maintain the integrity of IPAWS.” There has been no action on the House version.