FEMA under fire for slow progress on new alert system

House lawmakers today took aim at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's effort to modernize the nation's emergency alert system, saying progress has been too slow and legislative action may be needed to pressure the agency to work faster.

Comment on this article in The Forum.Lawmakers expressed frustration that FEMA has not moved quickly enough to develop the so-called Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, which eventually will allow alerts to be sent via e-mail, cell phones and hand-held devices. The House Homeland Security Emergency Communications Subcommittee held a hearing to examine IPAWS.

In a separate action, two members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced legislation that would establish standards and requirements that FEMA must meet for the new system.

"Communities and individuals need to know what steps to take in the event of a natural disaster or act of terrorism," Homeland Security Emergency Communications Subcommittee Chairman Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said at the hearing. "I worry that progress has been slow in making this system a reality."

Martha Rainville, FEMA's assistant administrator, said the first increment of the system will be rolled out to eight states and Puerto Rico this year. "We cannot do everything at once so later this year we are rolling out the first increment to support digital alerts," she said. "Later on, we will roll out additional increments to support risk-based alerts, non-English language alerts and alerts for special needs communities."

"The EAS has served us well, but the reality is that it is based on technology that is 15 years old," Rainville added. "Through IPAWS, FEMA and our partners are transforming the alert system from an audio-only signal sent on radios and televisions to one that can support audio, video, text and data messages sent to residential telephones, to Web sites, to pagers, to e-mail accounts and to cell phones."

The Homeland Security Department was given responsibility to develop the system under a 2006 executive order. Cuellar said it appears that FEMA is having problems meeting the order's requirements and told Rainville to provide the subcommittee within 10 days a list of goals and timetables in the executive order, as well as which ones have not been met and why. He said he also wants Rainville to tell the subcommittee whether FEMA needs legislation or new statutory authority to develop the system.

Meanwhile, House Transportation and Infrastructure Economic Development Subcommittee Chairwoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and ranking member Sam Graves, R-Mo., introduced legislation to prod FEMA along in developing the system. "The deadly tornados that swept across Missouri and several other states this weekend emphasize just how important it is to have a fast and effective warning system in place to alert people of impending disasters," Graves said in a statement. "Receiving a timely disaster warning can literally mean the difference between life and death."

The bill would require the system to be designed to use multiple current and future communications technologies, alert people in remote areas and people with disabilities, and allow people to choose how they want to receive alerts.