Scrutiny of Hawaii's False Missile Warning Likely to Dominate Senate Commerce Hearing
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).
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“We want to find out ... how the wheels came off out there in Hawaii,” Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters: “What's the role of the state government” and federal agencies in the emergency alerts process, including DOD? “The notification obviously came through” Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency and “we need to find out more about how that works -- and obviously in this case, didn’t work -- and what we can do to fix it,” Thune said. “I think we need to find out how in the world” the false warning “could have gone out without a checking system,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “There's a lot of unanswered questions.”
“What kind of system [does Hawaii] have and how does it connect into the national system?” Capito asked. “If there was a national system that would have realized this was a mistake” earlier, “that could have helped” end the incident earlier and prevented panic. “I'm interested to learn” about how widespread the text and broadcast alerts were, Capito said. She noted Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is exploring legislation aimed at developing best practices for state and local governments to use to improve their emergency alert processes. “I think it's something we need to look at, because obviously” the alert “was a pretty serious mistake,” Capito said.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told us she will focus her questions on the issuance Tuesday of a text tsunami warning to residents in Anchorage, Alaska, and other areas of the state who were not at risk after an earthquake in the Gulf of Alaska. The National Weather Service issued the wireless alert to residents based on census areas in the state, which overlapped areas of Anchorage along with coastal communities that were actually at risk.
It's clear many Senate Commerce members “are going to sound off” on the Hawaii and Alaska false alarms and will want to know what the FCC and the communications sector are “going to do” about the incidents, said Venable communications lawyer Jamie Barnett, a former FCC Public Safety Bureau chief. Current Chief Lisa Fowlkes, CTIA Senior Vice President Scott Bergmann, AARL Legislation Advocacy Committee Chairman Mike Lisenco and NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny are to testify. Fowlkes likely will adhere closely to what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has said in response to the Hawaii incident (see 1801170047), including the need for better safeguards to prevent the type of human error that triggered the false alert, Barnett said.
The committee should ensure the hearing isn't simply an opportunity to “harangue” Hawaii officials for their missteps and instead turn it into a discussion about how to improve the system in the future, Barnett said. “There probably needs to be an overall review” of the emergency alerts apparatus, including an examination by DOD and the Department of Homeland Security “about what classes of alerts can be initiated locally” since Hawaii's state government must rely on the federal government to detect incoming missiles. “Maybe there needs to be a reordering of protocols” for issuing alerts about weapons of mass destruction, including missile and aerial attacks, and which agencies have the power to issue and retract the warnings, Barnett said. There are clear reasons for the federal and state governments to “continue to improve” emergency alerts processes, “but those improvements need to include a constant analysis of the protocols and training that's required.”