Schatz, McNerney Refile Readi Act to Fix EAS Issues Highlighted in 2018 False Alarm
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., refiled the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act Thursday to further address emergency alerts system issues highlighted by a 2018 false missile alert in Hawaii (see…
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1801160054). Communications Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., is the main Senate co-sponsor. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and Pete Olson, R-Texas, signed the House companion. The bill would eliminate the option for people to opt out of receiving certain federal alerts on cellphones and require active alerts issued by the White House and Federal Emergency Management Agency to be repeated. 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 1807180053). “The missile alert exposed real flaws in the way people receive emergency alerts,” Schatz said. “Our bill fixes a number of important problems.” CTIA and NCTA lauded the refiling. The Senate in June passed a separate bill from Schatz addressing the Hawaii incident -- the Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats Act (see 1906270051) -- via its FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (S-1790). The Alert Act would give the federal government sole authority to issue missile threat alerts and pre-empt state and local governments' role (see 1802070052). Lawmakers are working on a compromise between S-1790 and the House-passed FY 2020 NDAA (HR-2500) (see 1909180048).