Some residents along the East Coast received a false tsunami warning Tuesday morning, in the hours leading up to a hearing by the House Homeland Security Communications Subcommittee on last month’s false missile alert in Hawaii (see 1801160054). Effective and reliable alerts are vital to the public and wireless emergency alerts need to be improved, said Chairman Dan Donovan, R-N.Y. False alerts undermine confidence in them, he said.
A Tuesday House Homeland Security Communications Subcommittee hearing is likely to mirror a recent Senate Commerce Committee one in focus on the Jan. 13 false missile alert in Hawaii, but some witnesses are likely to contrast that incident with industry and other states’ best practices, communications sector officials and lobbyists said in interviews. The false warning already drew congressional scrutiny, particularly from Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and other members of the state’s delegation (see 1801160054, 1801170050, 1801240046 and 1801250061). A planned Feb. 16 House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the FCC budget is expected to partially focus on the Hawaii incident and other public safety communications issues (see 1802050025).
The FCC approved an order Tuesday 5-0 imposing a Nov. 30, 2019, deadline for carriers to more accurately “geo-target” wireless emergency alerts. The order requires participating wireless providers to deliver WEAs to the target area specified by the alert originator with no more than a one-tenth of a mile overshoot, the FCC said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly expressed concerns about the deadline and whether it's achievable.
Hawaii’s false missile alert stemmed from lack of safeguards and human error, including a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee who repeatedly confused drills and real alerts, said reports from the Public Safety Bureau at an FCC commissioners' meeting and later Tuesday from Bruce Oliveira, the retired brigadier general investigating for HI-EMA (see 1801250061). That staffer was fired and other employees were disciplined. Members of Congress told us they continue to be concerned, as are FCC members.
Questions about the origination of the recent false missile alert in Hawaii should be answered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency rather than the FCC, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Lisa Fowlkes and several senators at a Commerce Committee hearing Thursday (see 1801240046), which FEMA officials didn't attend, despite being invited.
The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s request for an en banc rehearing of its case for multilingual emergency alert system rules should be rejected because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s ruling (see 1712080070) doesn’t conflict with other court decisions or raise novel issues, the FCC said in a respondent brief. The decision “applied settled principles of law” and the MMTC petition for rehearing should be denied, the agency said. The original rule committed to gathering information on multilingual alerts, and members of the public who don't understand English have other ways to get emergency information, the agency argued. MMTC plans for multilingual EAS alerts would have required a massive restructuring of the system, and rejecting such a plan was reasonable, the regulator said. “The panel determined that the agency was reasonable in seeking to obtain a complete record before concluding its examination of what is a complex and difficult issue.”
A false alarm warning about a ballistic missile headed for Hawaii is likely to be Senate Commerce Committee members' primary focus during a Thursday hearing on emergency alert systems, but it's likely other issues also will factor into the debate, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. The committee planned the hearing in direct response to the Hawaii alert, which caused panic there Jan. 13. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. The panel is just one element of the expected congressional scrutiny of the incident; a House Communications Subcommittee framed a planned Feb. 16 FCC oversight hearing as targeting ongoing issues with emergency alerts (see 1801160054 and 1801170050).
The full FCC issued a hearing designation order for the license renewal applications of two commonly owned and located AM stations in Virginia with a history of long periods of silence, the HDO said. Birach Broadcasting’s stations WBVA(AM) Bayside and WVAB(AM) Virginia Beach were silent for the vast bulk of time between 2008 and 2017, operating for a few days each year to avoid breaking commission rules against staying silent for a year, the HDO said. WBVA was operating for less than 200 days in that span, WVAB just under 400, the HDO said. The policy against allowing extended periods of silence by licensees “is to ensure that scarce broadcast spectrum does not lie fallow and unavailable,” the order said. The hearing on Birach’s stations will use an expedited process (see 1708030026) approved last year for stations that have long been silent, the HDO said. The proceeding will be a “paper hearing” because the FCC has “found no substantial issues of material fact or any credibility issues regarding this renewal application,” the HDO said. The hearing won’t involve discovery, though the FCC requested copies from Birach of program logs and emergency alert system records. The company has 30 days after the HDO is published in the Federal Register to turn over the records, and 60 days to file a response, the order said.
CTIA raised concerns on a draft order that would set a Nov. 30, 2019, deadline for launching geo-targeted wireless emergency alerts, set for a vote at next week’s FCC meeting. CTIA officials met with Public Safety Bureau staff and aides to commissioners, said a filing in docket 15-91. “CTIA expressed general support for the Draft Order’s goal of enhancing the geo-targeting capabilities of the Wireless Emergency Alert system,” the group said. “CTIA also expressed significant concern about the Commission’s aggressive timeline for implementing the enhanced WEA geo-targeting requirement. CTIA stated that, if adopted, the wireless industry will work intently to meet the … deadline.”
Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday he was asked by Chairman Ajit Pai to help build support on Capitol Hill for addressing FCC auction authority. “I’ve pushed as hard as I possibly can and will continue,” O’Rielly said, saying he testified on the importance of a fix and discussed it in Hill meetings. Sometimes Congress needs an “incident” to happen before it's willing to move, he told reporters. He also said he's confident the FCC's net neutrality repeal won't be overturned by lawmakers or courts.