House and Senate Commerce leaders told us they aim to continue work on telecom infrastructure legislation and tackle a raft of other communications policy issues, after their success just before the recess in enacting a range of telecom policy provisions as part of the $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (see 1803210041, 1803210068, 1803220048 and 1803230038). How the committees will prioritize those issues remained unclear last week, though the lawmakers and lobbyists acknowledged that follow-up on last week’s twin hearings with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the Cambridge Analytica data privacy controversy (see 1804100054 and 1804110065) could be a lingering factor. It’s beginning to look increasingly less likely that Capitol Hill will be able to produce any communications legislation of the same scope as what lawmakers accomplished in the omnibus, in part because of the dwindling legislative timeline before the November midterm elections, lobbyists said.
State Emergency Communications Committees have until May 4 to amend their state emergency alert system plans to include summaries of actions taken to provide multilingual EAS messages, said an FCC Public Safety Bureau public notice Wednesday in docket 04-296 on how to make the amendments. The requirement is part of the FCC's data collection on multilingual EAS, which survived a recent court challenge from the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (see 1802200033).
The FCC unanimously voted to combine the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Test Reporting System with an online filing system for state EAS plans, said an order released Tuesday in docket 15-94. The new system, called the Alert Reporting System (ARS), will “improve the mechanics of filing state plans at this agency” and “is a step forward,” said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement released with the order. ARS will replace paper filing requirements, lower the burdens on State Emergency Communications Committees and make it easier for entities such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency to access state plans, the order said. The ARS order also requires state EAS plans to be more uniform to make them easier to access and upload to an online system. “State EAS Plans currently lack consistent structure and content,” the order said. “An online filing system using uniform and consistent terminology will facilitate the input, analysis, and related uses of the Plan information.” A lack of uniformity among state EAS plans complicated the results of the first nationwide EAS test, the order said. Rosenworcel praised the order for giving EAS “some needed care and attention” but said it doesn't go far enough. “The FCC can do more by acting as a convening force to report and incentivize best practices for emergency alerting,” Rosenworcel said. She also said the agency should address other outstanding EAS issues such as false alerts “with dispatch.” After “the false emergency alert earlier this year in Hawaii, this work should be our priority,” Rosenworcel said.
The Puerto Rico Broadcasters Association thinks waiving broadcaster minor change rules for FM translators there and on the U.S. Virgin Islands "will save money that currently does not exist and is needed to get back on air" after hurricanes, PRBA Vice President Eduardo Rivero told us Friday through his lawyer. The previous day, the group asked the FCC Media Bureau Audio Division to allow more time for AM outlets on the islands seeking regulatory reprieve to resolve conflicts with others also seeking FM translators (see Ref:1804050047]). "There is precedent by the FCC of waiving translator rules for Puerto Rico to advance the establishment of FM translators locally," Rivero said now. Waiving the three-up or -down rule, which limits moves to no further than a third adjacent channel, "will provide additional outlets for the emergency alert system in the local communities served by the FM translators for future events," he added.
Senate Communications Subcommittee member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and other members of the Hawaii congressional delegation during a Thursday field hearing touted a set of bills they say are aimed at addressing issues with the emergency alert system highlighted during a January false alarm about a possible ballistic missile headed for the state (see 1801160054 and 1803160042).
The District of Columbia and 19 other nearby jurisdictions tested the wireless emergency alert system Thursday morning through the Washington Metro Council of Governments (COG). Some didn’t get the alerts, even though they were well within the region. By afternoon, about 12,000 people responded to a survey, D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency acting Director Chris Rodriguez told us. The FCC also seeks some input.
A planned Thursday Senate Commerce Committee field hearing on the January false alarm about a possible ballistic missile headed for Hawaii (see 1801160054 and 1803160042) is aimed as much at shaping legislation to address issues with the emergency alert system (EAS) highlighted in the incident as it is at answering lingering questions about the event, lawmakers and others told us. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. at the East-West Center’s Keoni Auditorium in Honolulu.
The National Capital Region is “blanketing social media” and doing a flurry of local media interviews before Thursday’s regional test of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency Director Chris Rodriguez, said in a Friday interview. The District will join 19 other nearby jurisdictions in a test from 10 to 11 a.m. (see 1803280055). “Our job as homeland security professionals is to provide lifesaving information to the public in an actual emergency,” he said. “We take that responsibility and that duty very seriously, and we need to practice that capability, because the last thing we want to do is in a real emergency be using this capability for the first time.” Users in the District will get an alert saying it’s a WEA test and no further action is required, he said. “We’re not going to do the Hawaii thing,” said Rodriguez, referring to the false alarm about a missile headed for the Pacific island state (see 1803160042). The District has about six or seven layers of review before a message is sent, he said. “No one person can send out a wireless emergency alert,” but the process still takes under a minute, he said. “We want to make sure that when the public hears from us, the public knows that it’s an emergency.” While HSEMA tests WEA every month internally, Thursday will be “the first coordinated regional test” of WEA to the general public, Rodriguez said. Success will be to “very quickly disseminate wireless emergency alerts to the public,” he said. Alerts will go out in phases over a half-hour period, with each jurisdiction taking turns hitting "send" about every 15 seconds, Rodriguez said. Alerts will go to anyone with a phone in the area, including out-of-town visitors, because WEA is based on proximity rather than area code, he said. HSEMA is coordinating with Destination D.C. to help get word out about the upcoming test through hotels and tourism organizations, a HSEMA spokeswoman added. Some users may get multiple alerts because the 20 jurisdictions overlap in some places, the director said. After the test, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments will gauge public reaction with an online survey, he said.
Broadcast industry officials see the recent seizure of a pirate radio operator’s equipment as a positive sign that the FCC is increasing its enforcement efforts against unlicensed operators (see 1803280049), but the existence of the pirate stations can be a reaction to a lack of diversity and localism in radio, a person affiliated with one of the stations involved in the seizure told us. The listeners of pirate station Big City FM won’t start listening to other Boston-area stations now that Big City is shut down, because those licensed stations don’t offer diverse or local voices, the unlicensed-affiliated person said. “I understand the need for diversity, but there’s other ways to provide that rather than stepping on [the Emergency Alert System],” said Massachusetts Broadcasters Association Executive Director Jordan Walton in an interview.
The District of Columbia will join 19 other nearby jurisdictions in a regional test of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency said in a Tuesday advisory. The test is April 5 between 10 and 11 a.m., with a backup date April 9 at the same time, HSEMA said. Others issuing advisories included Frederick County in Maryland, and Alexandria and Fairfax County, Virginia. The FCC earlier approved the WEA test (see 1803160044).