Calls the growing partisan nature of the u. S. Senate. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, Oklahoma Republican congressman steve russel will join us to discuss the latest on the deal to avoid a Government Shutdown and the governments waste watch report. Were live from jackson, mississippi, for the next stop on the cspan bus 50 capitals tour. Joining us will be Mississippi Attorney general jim hood to talk about key policy issues his state. Then new York Democratic congresswoman Carolyn Maloney on efforts to avoid a Government Shutdown this week and volatility in u. S. Financial markets. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern wednesday morning. Join the discussion. Following last months false alarm missile alert in hawaii, a house panel looked at the reliability and accuracy of Emergency Alerts. Well hear from representatives from fema and the new york and rhode island Emergency Management agencies as well as Wireless Technology industry officials. Congressman Daniel Donovan of new york chairs this Homeland Security subcommittee hearing. The subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response and communications will come to order. The subcommittee is meeting today to review our ability to timely and effectively alert and warn the public in the case of an emergency. I want to welcome our witnesses here this morning on an issue that is vital to the protection of americans. Effective and reliable alerts and warnings. The numerous disasters and terrorist attacks that weve witnessed over the past few months have illustrated that timely communication is critical in an emergency situation. And the ability of critical information, the availability of critical information can help individuals protect themselves from harms way. While some of us grew up in an Emergency Alert warnings through television, radio and im old enough to remember when they told to us get underneath our desks because there was a siren warning. Many alerts today are also received through mobile devices, the internet and even social media. Considering the Technology Advances that have been made over the past decade, we have High Expectations for what our phones, tablets and computers can do. At the very least, we expect that the alerts that come through our devices are timely, accurate and only sent when necessary. During the Chelsea Bombing in 2016, the new york city Emergency Management department sent out three messages to the chelsea neighborhood. One, two alert individuals to shelter in place. Two, once the situation was cleared, and the third one, to solicit the publics help in locating the suspect. These are messages helped these messages helped protect individuals 59 a time of uncertainty. It was also reported that they were received far outside the target area. While it is difficult to obtain 100 accuracy, i am glad that the fcc voted last week to require the delivery of alerts to 100 of the target area identified by the alert the alert system with no more than 0. 10 of a mile overshoot. This kind of accuracy will help to deter warning this will help determine excuse me this will help to deter warning fatigue. Unfortunately, there have been erroneous Emergency Alerts sent to the public that undermines the confidence in the system and the messages that are shared. We saw an example of this just this morning when an alert that was supposed to be a test instead warned multiple locations on the east coast that a tsunami was on its way. In addition, erroneous Emergency Alert issued by the state of hawaii on january 13th, 2018, warning residents and visitors of a Ballistic Missile threat inbound to hawaii. Has caused the same concern of ours. Because this incident occurred due to human error, im interested in hearing about the training, certification to message originators to ensure proper use of the system. In addition, im interested in knowing more about the safeguards that should have been in place and what, if anything, needs to be done on a federal level to make sure that this never happens again. In addition to improve the response to terrorist events, i encourage the fcc to take action on multimedia alerts, many want feedback and multiling waual alerts. Directly to recipients phones during the Chelsea Bombing or if recipients were able to respond to the message to report that they saw the chelsea bomber, it may have led to a faster apprehension of the suspect. However, enhancements to the system will be meaningless if basic awareness of how to use the system is not met. Considering the current threat environment in the united states, evidence by many incidences over the past few months, including two terrorist attacks in new york city, one in october and the other in december of 2017, 9 accuracy and efficiently of wireless Emergency Alerts is critical. That way when an imminent threat alert is sent, americans can and will act according to protect themselves and their loved ones. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today to share their expertise with us and i look forward to our discussion. The chair now recognizes my friend, the recognizing member of this subcommittee, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Pane, f payne, for an Opening Statement that he may have. Good morning. And id like to thank chairman donovan for holding todays hearing to assess the state of our nations alert and Warning Systems. Our ability to issue timely Emergency Alerts and warnings is an essential component of the national preparedness. We know when people we know when the public is warned early and given enough time to protect themselves and their property, we can limit the human toll and mitigate damage to our communities. Since the federal government began pursuing a National Alert capacity capability over 50 years ago, we have leveraged advances in technology to push alerts out to a Larger Population for the public more quickly. At the same time, the federal government has undertaken efforts to educate the public about alerts, warnings and how important it is to respond to them. Ultimately, for the public alerts and the warnings to be effective, the public has to be able to trust them. This is why last months false Ballistic Missile alert in hawaii was so troubling. Im concerned that a single employee was able to issue an alert in the first place and that it took nearly 40 minutes to issue a false alarm message over that platform. That said, false alerts are not limited to hawaii. During a routine test of the Emergency Alert system last month, a false alert announcing an emergency in morris county, new jersey, interrupted programming for certain cable subscribers last month. After Hurricane Irma hit florida last year, an alert issued, an error by state employee, directed residents to boil their water, causing hours of confusion. What these incidents have taught us is that we need enhanced training and guidance for state and local governments that are authorized to issue Emergency Alerts through femas integrated public alert Warning System or ipaws. False alerting can be false alerting can be very dangerous as it can lead to alert apathy, confusion and unnecessary panic. Nevertheless, we should not allow these incidents to cloud the success of otherwise trustworthy Emergency Alert and Warning Systems. Wireless Emergency Alerts have been partially effective in keeping people out of harms way, whether used to warn of inclement weather or a manmade attack. To date, 33,000 wireless Emergency Alerts messages have been disseminated. The majority of these messages have been weatherrelated and were instrumental in saving lives during last years unusually active Hurricane Season and unprecedented wildfires. But it is important to note that the wireless Emergency Alerts were also sent after the Boston Marathon bombing and the Chelsea Bombing in new york to help Law Enforcement catch the terrorist suspects. As we evaluate the existing alerts and Warning Systems, id be interested to learn what efforts are underway at the federal, state and local level to integrate emerging technologies into alerts and warnings procedures. I look forward to engaging both panels about what has been working well with ipaws and to gave where improvement is needed. With that, i thank the witnesses for being here today and i look forward to your testimony and i yield back the balance of my time. The gentleman yields. Other members of the subcommittee are reminded that Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. We are pleased to have two very distinguished panels before us today on this important topic. On our first panel, mr. Antoine johnson sieve serves as the director of continuity and communications at the federal Emergency Management agency. In this capacity, he overcies the integrated public alert and Warning System. Serves as the chief of the federal Communications CommissionsPublic Safety and Homeland Security bureau. In this capacity, she manages the commissions responsibilities related to lears and warnings, 911 systems and Public Safety communications. The witnesses full written statements on the record and the chair recognizes mr. Johnson for his fiveminute Opening Statement. Thank you chairman donovan, Ranking Member payne and members of the subcommittee. My name, as mentioned, is Antoine Johnson and im the director of Continuity Communications at fema. On behalf of secretary nielson and administrator long, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the integrated public alert and Warning System also known as ipaws. And how it is used to save lives across the country. An effective and timely public alert and Warning System is critical to communicating threats to the public, providing people with guidance during times of crisis. At fema, we manage iment paws and its two main components, warnings and communications from the president in the event of a catastrophic emergency through the National PublicWarning System and manage geotargeted alerts sent from state, local and tribal authorities during emergencies such as those last year. Allows those alerting authorities to send emergency members to people in their geographic jurisdiction by Emergency Alert system broadcast through radio and tv. Wireless Emergency Alerts to cell phones. Broadcast from noaa weather radios and other internet connected serves. Today iapaws serve more than 26,000 radio tv and capable connections, 63 cellular carriers, gateways reaching millions of cell phons. Connections to noaa dissemination systems, 73 internet venders that tap into the alert feed and we established a in session between ipaws and canadas multiagency Situational Awareness program for the exchange of disaster information between our countries. Since inception of the system in 2012, there have been nearly 3 million messages disseminated through ipasws which cover everything from a Natural Disaster to a active shooter help communicate critical lifesaving information to the public. For example, after a camp manager in windsor, connecticut, received a wireless Emergency Alert on her mobile device, she evacuated 29 children from a soccer dome just before an ef1 tornado touched down and ripped the roof off. In 2016, new york sent a new york city sent a wireless Emergency Alert with an electronic wanted poster to identify a suspect in connection with bombings in manhattan and new jersey. The suspect was captured within hours. Last year, wireless Emergency Alerts were used by officials to issue warnings and evacuation orders in texas, florida, california and california in response to hurricanes and wildfires. Significantly, since 2012, 47 kidnapped children have been returned with to their loved ones after an amber alert was issued through the system. And members of the community helped Law Enforcement locate perpetrators. In addition to managing the ipaws program, fema helps train users and create guidance in for alerting authorities and Software Tool venders. Its important to note while fema mansion the ipaws system, we rely on our state and local partners to originate communications to their jurisdictions as they are the boots on the ground that are best able to communicate the threats they face and provide specific protective action information related to their area. Following the direction from congress and the ipaws modernization act of 2015, fema has established a subcommittee to the National Advisory council. The subcommittee includes members from state and local, tribal and territorial governments, Communications Service providers, organizations representing individuals with limited needs and others. This subcommittee is consulting with ipaws users and experts to consider new and developing technologies that may be punishable to ipaws and the nation. The subcommittee will develop recommendations on matters related to common alert and warning protocols, standards, terminology and operating procedures. Through this subcommittee, we are looking at recent uses of the system, including use during the 2017 Natural Disasters as well as the false alert in hawaii to identify Lessons Learned. In addition to this wholistic review, there are some key areas in which the ipaws program is focussed to the future. Engaging venders of ipaws Capable Software to screens for consistency. And collaboration with the partners, we continue to promote adoption and use of ipaws by Public Safety officials and we make sure that state and local, tribal and government officials are aware of our ipaws lab for testing to ensure they can maintain proficiency and understand the proper use of the system. I look forward to continuing to work with congress and provide updates as we move forward with recommendations to continue to modernize the system and our procedures. I am grateful for the opportunity to appear before you today and i am happy to respond to any questions the subcommittee may have at this time. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Johnson. The chair now recognizes ms. Fowlkes for five minutes. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss our nations Emergency Alert systems. As i recently testified before the u. S. Senate committee on customers, science and transportation, the false Ballistic Missile warning issued on january 13th by the state of hawaii was unacceptable. It resulted in widespread panic and the extended period to took to correct the error, nearly 40 minutes, compounded the problem. Looking beyond the immediate consequences of the mistake, which were serious in and of themselves, this cry of wolf damaged the credibility of alert messaging, which can be dangerous when a real emergency occurs. The commission acted swiftly to open an investigation into the matter. That investigation is ongoing, however. The fccs Public Safety and Homeland Security bureau prepared a preliminary report at the commissions january 30th open meeting. I have included the presentation made at the open meeting with my written statement for the record. But briefly, as the bureau reported, it appears that the false alert was the result of two failures. First, simple human error. Second, the state did not have safeguards or process protocols in place to prevent that human error from resulting in the transmission of a false alert. Moving forward, the commission will focus on ways to prevent this from happening again. Federal, state and local officials throughout the country need to Work Together to identify any vulnerabilities