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Prepared Statement of The Honorable Joe Barton Shimkus-Wynn Bill, Expanding Emergency Alert System
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing today on the "Warning, Alert, and Response Network Act," known as the WARN Act. This is an important public debate, and it is time we start considering the value of advancements in communications and the role that such advancements can play in emergency alerts. Events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina made having a vibrant and robust emergency alert system a priority. In the chaos of a general emergency, people must have a reliable way to receive information about what has happened and get instructions about what to do. We have come a long way since 1951 when President Truman established the first alert system. Those were the days when television was just arriving and a long-distance phone call was an event in the life of a family. Today, we live in a culture of mobility, where most of us have access to the Internet, millions have cellphones and many carry data devices like BlackBerrys and Treos. With 200 million people in this country carrying wireless devices, it makes sense that when the government needs to alert the public about emergencies, the best way is to get their attention is through the communications devices they carry on them. In fact, one of the recommendations coming from the White House Katrina Report was that the U.S. should "employ all available 21st century technologies both to update and utilize the national Emergency Alert System in order to provide the general public with advanced notification of and instruction for disasters and emergencies." The WARN Act, introduced by Reps. Shimkus and Wynn, will create a National Alert System so that anybody with a communications device can be warned. The WARN Act will enable emergency alerts to be transmitted over a broad range of technologies, including broadcast and cable, whether digital or analog, mobile phones, BlackBerrys, and satellite television and radio. And, importantly, the WARN Act requires the creation of a Working Group made up of government officials and experts in industry and public safety. With the input of all interested parties, we can create a vibrant emergency alert system that is consistent, redundant, and, most importantly, reliable. I understand that there is a great deal of activity going on in the emergency alert space. As we will hear today, the Federal Communications Commission is currently examining this issue in light of their work with the Emergency Alert System. The Association of Public Television Stations has been working on pilot projects using the existing public broadcasting infrastructure to transmit emergency alerts. I am anxious to learn more about these projects and how they fit into the WARN Act work we are doing today. I thank Representatives Shimkus and Wynn for their good work on this bill, and the Chairman for holding this hearing. I yield back.
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