Schatz, Other Hawaii Congress Members Home In on Process Fixes After January False Warning
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).
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel believes the agency should begin “serving as a convening force to report current [emergency alert] best practices -- including security protocols -- at the local, state, and federal level and then support their inclusion in annual filing” of required plans to the agency. Hawaii's emergency alert plans filed with the agency at the time of the problem were “over a decade old,” she said. The FCC should also institute a “reporting system for false alerts” aimed at learning “when and where they happen and to prevent them from happening again,” Rosenworcel said. The government should “explore future alert capabilities,” including “viability of offering alerts to audio and video streaming services,” she said.
The FCC is finalizing its report on the occurrence and “expects to release it in the near future,” said Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief Nicole McGinnis. She said the document will confirm an earlier finding the false alert and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency's “delay in correcting it” were “due to a combination of human error and the lack of effective operating procedures and safeguards.” The study will also find that procedures to “prevent or correct the false alarm were not adequate,” such as HI-EMA's lack of “procedures to prevent a single person from mistakenly issuing a live missile alert,” McGinnis said. “Clear protocols for not just cancellation, but also for prompt correction of a false alert over the same systems used to issue the alert would have reduced the public panic that ensued in the extensive time following the false alert.”
The regulator plans to recommend state, local and tribal agencies require “more than one credentialed person to validate message content prior to transmission of high-impact alerts that affect a significant percentage of the population,” McGinnis said: The commission will recommend agencies develop “standard operating procedures for responding to false alerts” and upgrade software to in part include “clearer prompting language” that distinguishes between live and test messages.” States and local agencies should also conduct regular internal tests of their alerts via the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Test Lab, McGinnis said.
Hawaii's State Emergency Communications Committee is working on an updated state EAS plan in response to the January incident, said Hawaii Association of Broadcasters President Chris Leonard. The updated plan should clearly define all EAS participants' roles and “needs to thoroughly address the procedural errors” that resulted in the false warning, he said. It should also “address the shortfalls of the existing plan,” provide “redundant” communications paths for EAS stakeholders and “address rapid-response issues,” including correcting a false alert, Leonard said.
FEMA, HI-EMA
FEMA is working to “improve public alert and warning guidance, planning, training, practice, and exercises, and incorporate them across FEMA programs and into the National Incident Management System," said Continuity Communications Division Director Antwane Johnson. The agency is launching an “online collaborative forum” this spring to allow agencies and software developers to collaborate on best practices and alerting procedures, he said. FEMA is recommending that warning-origination software providers “ensure critical capabilities be included in their products to make alert and warning more effective and include steps to mitigate alerting errors,” Johnson said.
Pacific Command's review found that although HI-EMA five minutes later initiated a message canceling the false alert, it took a further 33 minutes for that retraction message to be sent via text and broadcast, said Director of Operations Rear Adm. Patrick Pearcey. Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) and other federal and state officials released messages via social media retracting the false alarm first, he said. Pacific Command found “an inefficiency in the reporting process which, in addition to the notification requirements maintained by” the military command, “required a separate unclassified phone call to HI-EMA designed to provide validation to the notification report HI-EMA receives from FEMA,” Pearcey said. He said the incident “highlighted the importance of maintaining an independent and dedicated unclassified line into” Pacific Command's operations center so officials can “communicate in the event of an emergency, regardless of call volume.”
This “revealed systemic issues” that HI-EMA is beginning to correct, said Director Maj. Gen. Arthur Logan. Steps include “establishing internal processes and procedures to ensure supervisors are monitoring the performance” of staff, “tracking training and identifying training requirements for the established positions,” he said. He said the agency “greatly enhanced” its software so it's easier to differentiate between live and test messages, and is “working on two-factor authentication” with its vendor that provides access to IPAWS since it “adds a complexity layer that would only be used for very specific alerts, such as a missile alert.”
Legislation
Schatz touted his Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats Act (HR-4965/S-2385), as expected (see 1804040057), and said he plans to file the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement Act as a companion bill. The Readi Act would require the FCC to set best practices for delivering emergency alerts in a bid to streamline the alerting process, Schatz said. It would also update the process for creating and approving state EAS plans and examine the feasibility of expanding EAS to also distribute warnings to online streaming services, he said.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, an S-2385 co-sponsor, said she has been focused on “clarifying what role the federal government can play” in mitigating the risk of future false alerts. HR-4965/S-2385, filed in February, would give the federal government the sole authority to issue missile threat alerts and pre-empt state and local governments' role in issuing such warnings (see 1802070052).
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, said it's important to “draw the distinction between” natural disasters and missile alerts in determining which agencies have the authority to issue emergency alerts. Hanabusa and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, led sponsorship of HR-4965. “When it comes to ballistic missiles, maybe that should be a separate category” of threat for which only the federal government should have alerting authority, Hanabusa said. She is asking the House Armed Services Committee to examine “what the military's role should be” in issuing missile alerts. Rosenworcel endorsed HR-4965/S-2385 during the hearing, saying it “proposes important improvements, including clear lines of responsibility when it comes to missile threats.”
Gabbard touted two other bills she has filed with Hanabusa in response to the January incident -- the Civil Defense Accountability Act (HR-4949) and the Civil Defense Preparedness Act (HR-5399). HR-4949 would require the FCC, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Defense to publicly disclose any reports and recommendations they produce in relation to the Hawaii incident, Gabbard said. HR-5399 would expand DHS terrorism and catastrophic events grant program to include improving nuclear, biological and chemical attack preparedness, she said. Hanabusa believes it's important any legislation be aimed at ensuring “the public believes” federal and state agencies “know what we are doing” on emergency alerts.