and will come to order i want to welcome all of the day's witnesses currently our nation is fascinated with television shows you know c s i and twenty four where the characters work with a video conference our friends five thousand miles away sound as if they're just down the street we can google and find out millions of pieces of information almost instantaneously most of the country to the credit of the american people has have has embraced the use of smart technology consequently many americans believe that they have the capability to receive a presidential emergency message via their cell phone p d a f or fax they are wrong in the event of a national emergency heaven forbid a not eleven or an oklahoma city bombing type event citizens must rely primarily on an emergency alert system built in the one nine hundred sixty with little progress to show today thousands of citizens across the country rely on the familiar system that interrupts television viewing with a beeping sound the multi colored stripes across the screen you know the same stuff that was there when we were kids and the words same words this is only a test of the emergency alert system or e a s this system was built during the cold war to revive citizens with an emergency broadcast the television or radio radios and vising that they have five minutes to seek appropriate shelter because a tornado is approaching or to evacuate the area because a hurricane will arrive in a few hours or other disasters if they were in need to reach the nation to convey an emergency message it is at best questionable whether a sizeable portion of the country would receive it the government accounting office accountability office reports that there are many unaddressed weaknesses that limit the effectiveness of the nation primary public or the morning system as far as it goes considering technology day thema is responsible for administering the national c s with assistance from the federal communications commission to ensure compliance with regulations broadcast radio and television stations and satellite radio operators are required to participate in national level  voluntary i subcommittees jurisdiction is primarily implicated because of the large number of natural disasters this country experiences every year indeed most of the disasters far away  in june two thousand and six president bush issued executive order three four o seven directing the problem of homeland security to modernize and integrate the nation's public warning system to create a robust federal warning system and to report on progress on at least an annual basis the fema integrated public alert warning system i p a does yes i pause program was initiated in two thousand and four and became the program eric mechanism to carry out the executive order being what defines i pause as a system of system which is intended to eventually integrate existing and new alert systems including yes unfortunately we are now nearing the end of two thousand and nine and national alert national level examine why on the current status of e a s to the progress made in famous efforts to modernize and integrate alerted warning systems and three the issues and challenges involved in implementing an integrated public alert and warning system today fema will testify on the report we asked a month to prepare which has been titled emergency preparedness improved planning and coordination necessary for development of integrated public alert and warning system at the june two thousand and eight hearing we heard from various e a s i pause state holders including federal partners state and local governments the emergency management associations the broad as industry and others that sima had not met i had not met with them periodically to get their advice or to inform them of our program progress or direction at the hearing this subcommittee was clear that immediate leadership by stephen was expected and that simply attending events and conferences that other groups hold is not an effective way for fema to interfere interface with state holders then assistant administrator for continuity programs general martha rainville said that fame and here i'm quoting her will be setting up a formal group and an advisory group if you will that will work to make sure to inform the  program and quote there has been some very recent progress but stakeholders still express frustration with the lack of communication and coordination overall therefore it has become modernization advisory committee to ensure stakeholders important currently i understand that most of the members of famer staff will be responsible for the current and future implementation of of i lack of performance measures will be a thing of the past the danger from terrorism and natural disasters all only increases with an antiquated alert system and cmos should expect frequent oversight and reports on progress as due to this subcommittee without leadership and in the absence of federal standards and protocols many states and localities have felt they had to begin building their own systems a useless pack work of alert systems that are unable to communicate with one another is the likely result of the state by state approach underway we have seen that results before when police and fire on nine eleven could not communicate we cannot repeat the same mistakes again several of our witnesses have told have stories to share that will remind us of what is its stake for citizens and why there must be no more delay in building a modern integrated alert system that takes into account the end uses users our fellow citizens again i welcome today's witnesses and look forward to your testimony and accessible and willing to look at any issue that is important to all of the members of your subcommittee and i cannot thank you enough and this is another hearing which i think is very very important i'm also pleased to welcome all of the  late night and he's here this morning and i want to thank him for flying up here and testifying it later on also he's accompanied by dan summers i'm out of show and you've been in florida and in south florida in particular you've seen the quality of the emergency management personnel that we have there because unfortunately we have more experience than we'd like to have than is one of those quality individuals that is doing a spectacular job and keeping the people of southwest florida safe  you know i worked with that your own on this hearing because i was as everybody knows i represent one of the most prone for hurricanes part of the country and the ability to warn public  frankly an issue of literally life and death this is not theory this is life and death and i like the chairwoman who just spoke to us right now we are both totally determined committed to modernize this system and again i thank her leadership for this in the age of i phones and g p s no one would think that and i think most people believe that the government of president states could if there is an emergency to target a specific area and make sure that the information is out there well the reality is if you would think that would be the case you'd be dead wrong because that capability to not exist in our country the fact is that if a big disaster hit today the president could only send  message basically to the entire country and it's doubtful if that message would actually get to those who really need to hear it to those who are in in the way of whatever disaster it may be here there's a likely chance that message will never be received to those that really need to hear it and if you are hearing or visually impaired handicapped or have limited english proficiency and then you pretty much out of luck and  we'll hear from the witnesses today i'm sure a little more about that but why though i mean why one would ask the apostle because the federal government frankly relies as the chairman said on on these phone lines and on the to the technology that's available twenty first century technology we're really dealing with sixty's technology still in addition to gaps in coverage existing emergency alert system again only reaches a public through those medias through through television and radio now let me tell you until seven the system was frankly very little help in florida when tornadoes ripped through several towns at three in the morning and killed twenty one people and that's why it's a little while ago this is not theory in the case of emergencies in the case of the state that i represent and others obviously this is a life or death situation when those twenty one people were killed in their beds at three in the morning it's unlikely that they would have been watching their television and listen to the radio at that time  but it is likely that they had cell phones and it is likely that they had telephone and landlines and it is likely that they had other ways where they would have maybe been able to receive the information now if that was not bad enough jail warns that it may get a lot worse if states go to as the chairman just mentioned go it alone and start developing their own patchwork of systems because the federal government is a is nowhere to be found and then we risk the possibility the real possibility of having first responders not be able to communicate with each other federal government to communicate with state governments and local governments so we are in danger of repeating the same mistakes that were made with the radios first responder radios if we don't get this program on track and get on track now time is of the essence that is why as the chairman said we introduced i introduced with  development of i pods we wish we didn't have to do this as was a little while ago the president in two zero six right now the chairman actually it's an executive order and unfortunately nothing nothing happened so we wish we didn't need right legislation but we clearly have  it has been shown to us that we do need legislation and it would require that i posit include among the things that would include multiple communication technologies a capability to send both a presidential message and state and local alerts a capability to one individual's limited english proficiency and individuals with disabilities and the ability to deal target alerts to affected communities the bill would also establish an advisory committee composed of shares stakeholders including state and local emergency management officials know the private sector to ensure that i posit not developing a budget in a in a bubble or in a vacuum but rather that incorporates the experience in the those who happen to be watching t v or listening to the radios receive the warning and where states frankly tire of rating and local governments not only states because also local governments are also moving forward with their efforts because again the federal government  found so where states and local governments just continue to do their own thing develop their own possibly incompatible systems or which is the preferred preferable option we can move forward on a digital system of stis systems system of systems as it's called that allows officials to target life saving information over multiple devices and through multiple technologies to people in danger  those are the options that we're facing so which future we choose frankly will be critical in saving lives or not and ensuring that our communities are prepared are properly prepared for major disasters that we know w hit our different communities once again i want to thank joan norton again for working with me on this important issue as she has been to southern florida she has been everywhere she will not accept status quo and i don't need to thank you for your leadership there once again i also need to thank the chairman oberstar for including this legislation as part of his larger stafford act reform bill it is a that that bill is a huge priority for him the fact that he has allowed this bill to go on there is something obviously that we all very grateful for so again i thank you i thank all the of those of you who are going to be testifying in front of us and is i want to extend my thanks to the chairwoman and the ranking member for holding this important hearing today i would like to also thank them for their sustained attention with hearings like those today  yesterday to discuss post hurricane recovery getting the integrated public alert and warning systems up and running is critical to ensuring the safety of our citizens this next generation infrastructure will move away from the traditional audio only radio and television emergency alert system and provide state of the art coverage i pause will take advantage of  networks to include cell phone landlines pagers faxes personal digital assistants desktop computers a subtle and will enable us to communicate with one consistent message over more media to more people before during and after a disaster for a district like mine which is for normal to hurricanes and other natural disasters the comprehensive advance warning that i pa offers will be invaluable that is why i'm very disappointed to hear the delays in implementation of this program that was first invasion over eight years ago i'm very eager to hear the g a o explanation as to the status of this program and fema explanation for the delays each day month and year this program is delayed we run the risk of losing lives over two thousand americans died during hurricane katrina and in the written testimony for today's hearing i saw one report of a man not knowing of the impending flood until the waters were rising around his house just from this example we can see the importance of communication and for this reason i have taken an active role in creasing the government's capacity for getting emergency information out to our citizens i have authored legislation that directs g l to conduct a study on our current ability to reach non english speakers and with emergency information and what additional government resources are required to adequately communicate with such communities i have discussed this and other revisions to the stafford act with chairman over starr and he is supportive i have authored legislation that  interoperable emergency communications grant program through fiscal year two thousand and twelve to give states additional time to apply for these grants i am a co sponsor of the chairwoman and ranking members bill to ensure the implementation of the i pod's program i organize members from the gulf coast and sending a letter to the department of defense to look at pilot programs for implementation of i pause while fema are working out the implementation of i pods this is the twenty first century with the technology we have a bell available to us today there is no excuse for any more delays in getting i pod up and running i know that the chairwoman and ranking member and i we want to hear firm commitment to deadlines from fema for which you can be insured we will hold you accountable there should be no more delays warning systems this system the emergency alert system e a s provides the president and other authorized officials with limited capacity to transmit emergency messages to the public in our previous work we have found that yes relies antiquated methods that date back to one thousand nine hundred sixty three exposing the system to weaknesses including questionable reliability and versatility in two thousand and six the department of homeland security by executive order was given the responsibility for modernizing public alert and warning systems to ensure the capability of distributing alerts through varied telecommunications modes and to tailor alerts to specific geographic areas and fema the entity within d h s responsible for the program is working on the integrated public alert and warning system i pause which is intended to eventually integrate e a s into a larger warning network when completed yes it's expected to be superseded by the i paused system of systems to form the country's comprehensive public alert system assume it develop i pause state local governments are implementing their own warning systems which may be difficult to integrate with the broader i pause system my testimony based on a report today focuses on the current status of the i s the progress made in fim is efforts to modernize and integrate alert warning systems and coordination issues involved in implementing an integrated public alert and warning system geos findings from today's report are as follows first as the primary national level public warning system s is an important alert tool but it exhibits longstanding weaknesses that limit its effectiveness in particular the reliability of the national level relay system which would be critical if the president were to issue a national level alert remains questionable due to a lack of redundancy gaps in coverage a lack of testing and training and limitations and how alert disseminated to the public further a s provides little capability to alert specific geographic regions fema has projects underway to address some of these weaknesses however to date little progress has been made in a s remains largely unchanged since geos previous review completed in march two thousand and seven as a result e a s does not feel the need for reliable comprehensive alert system second initiated in two thousand and four themas i pause program has made little progress i pause as is intended to integrate new and existing alert capabilities including e a s into a system of systems however national level alert capabilities have remained unchanged and new technologies have not been adopted i pause effect efforts have been affected by shifting program goals a lack of continuity in planning staff turnover and poorly organized program information from which to make management decisions the vision of i pods has changed twice over the course of the program and strategic goals and milestones are not clearly defined as i pods has operated without an implementation plan from early two thousand and seven in till this summer consequently has state and local governments are forging ahead with their own systems i pause program implementation has stalled and many of the functional goals of i pod such as geo targeting of messages and dissemination through redundant pathways to multiple devices have yet to reach operational capacity if ema conducted a series of pilot projects without systematically assessing outcomes or lessons learned and without substantially advancing alert and warning systems fema does not periodic we report on i pause progress therefore program transparency and accountability are lacking third fema faces coordination issues in developing and implementing i pause effective public warning depends on the expertise efforts and cooperation of diverse stakeholders such a state and local emergency managers and the telecommunications industry however many state and local many they called the g a o contacted know little about i pods and expressed the need for better coordination with fema the g a o survey indicated that the majority of state emergency management directors had little communication with email regarding i pause team has taken steps to improve its coordination efforts by planning to participate in emergency management conferences and building improved relationships between the i pods program and team regional office however despite stage stating its plan to create a stakeholder subcommittee and state advisory committees fema has established neither group and has no current plans to do so and the report released today g a o recommends that fema implement processes for systems development deployment report periodically on progress toward achieving an integrated public alert and warning system and implementing a plan to verify the dependability of a pause and to train i pause participant in response to a report a just agreed with all the recommendations and provided explanations of actions aimed at hearts and prayers go out to the families of those affected by yesterday's tsunami in american samoa and the adjoining regions seem activated their national response coordination center yesterday and ministry to few moving life same equipment  some department of defense programs and my experience with thema began in two thousand and four when i served as defense corning officer for florida there was responsible for department of defense response and assets in support of the state emergency management effort for hurricanes that ravaged the state also served in that same capacity for hurricane katrina in two thousand and four the state of mississippi i'd like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and give you an update on the status of  integrated public alert and warning system pause pause as you're well aware the nation is the nation's next generation public alerting system its purpose is to provide public alert and warning services to federal state local territorial and tribal emergency managers in partnership with organizations like this so shushan of public television stations pause will integrate modernize the emergency alert system by increasing the number of dissemination pass to the primary entry points or pep stations further provide an interface to commercial sale or carriers giving them a broadcast serial or alert capability in addition a program is developing inner operable standards to support the distribution of alert and warning messages to state and local warning systems such as emergency telephone network dollars websites sailor phones and other technologies my vision of a pause is to broaden effective and comprehensive system that enables the proper authorities to alert and mourn over ninety percent of the american people through multiple means under all conditions the instate a system is it will deliver the presidential state territorial or travel messages by multiple means as an example imagine that a toxic cloud is released from an industrial accident an individual in expect in the affected area can expect to be notified by network public and a television am f m or satellite radio a cell phone call to his residence or call to his residence or cell phone call a text message to a cell phone a message on the north weather radio band and if he is he or she is disabled or unable to speak english a message in a format that they can information standards oasis which is an international standards organization set the cap protocols in the balloting this will provide us the standard for the industry protocols by as early as in next week from their vendors are already working on non propriety terry hardware and broadcasters will have everything they need to be compliant with the new standard by late next summer we successfully completed a test of the emergency alert system last week they represent step one a three part validation towards conducting a nationwide test of e a s as you're well aware a nationwide test has never been conducted our next step is a system wide test that we will conduct in alaska in january this is  eight new primary entry point stations they've completed site surveys and fifteen they will complete the other site surveys in the coming months with a complete construction date twenty four months from now we've also out updated our outreach at all levels for example we deliver twenty two regional state briefings since july of last year and we have three major working groups that meet monthly during much short tenure i personally met with members who represent the broadcast industry federal communications commission the primary entry point administrative council the white house resiliency directorate and several people to represent state and local governments and i'm currently scheduled to attend four major conferences of stakeholders before the end of the calendar year our efforts have not been one way communications we've learned a great deal from our state local territorial and travel partners for example florida and several other states are helping us leverage capabilities and technologies they already have using targeted cell phone calling  interfacing with communication devices for the disabled texas is sharing the software they pilot it to integrate into the no alert system massachusetts and pennsylvania are using satellite receivers to relay messages directly versus a daisy chain approach us in washington have installed geo targeting systems are testing the capability to integrate through modeling into their systems and we're trying to leverage just as will the state local territorial and tribal governments are also clearly dictating their needs and their vision to serve their citizens so we can build an adequate capability in our systems to meet what they need and expect in the future as a program runs its life cycle i'm sure there are going to be developmental and engineering problems they're going to be conflicts  among stakeholders and and program to lace but these will not be setbacks they will be challenges that we are overcome apple's moving forward is on schedule and will keep moving forward fema our state local territor the committee will not tolerate receiving testimony eight thirty p m the day before the hearing we believe that the holdup is at o m b deliver that subcommittee i think it may indeed have been in this one to delay here and will never happen will never happen plenty of notice and make sure they know it so they don't put you in that position again because we do not blame you on your best judgment both of you if the president of united states and out of emergency message today would receive the message and who would not i think it's very unclear madam chair who would receive it the system on its best day only eighty two percent of the population is covered by the primary stations and when the message leaves the primary stations as the limited testing has shown so far there's no assurance that a message would get very far after leaving the primary stations is not an insurance that it would reach very far into the targeted area are you saying that's correct there's been limited testing of the system fim in the past has not been very willing to test the system but they did finally tested several years ago and three of the primary stations never received the message at all which would have affected potentially millions of people and then in  inadvertent accidental take it test in illinois in two thousand seven when someone frankly pushed the wrong button what happened was that the cable companies never received the message either the equipment that the cable companies used was not functioning and so there are no there is very little assurance that the system is working properly today and that a presidential message would get to the american public and then i'm sure my assessment would you hold that might see have i'm talking everybody can hear me maybe the way in which these mikes work you've got to speak directly and to that microphone or else you will not be heard clearly and now we are for you answer we have these these these different estimates thema estimates substations are only thirty five perhaps stations the primary stations that distribute the information to other stations and so with there are actually thirty four and we are up to one more for thirty five that's correct what's taken so long if pep stations what we've been relying on how well are we entering up what takes a long fim indicated the ability to put sixty nine of them in place within a short period time but they've been unable to reach that goal and they have six three years they've put into that six and with the coverage of the coverage would be approximately ninety percent at that point in time mr pan what has slowed up  the implementation of that station madam chair i'm not convinced that we had a comprehensive building program in our plan and i'm not sure that we took in consideration the the the  time that it would take to build the stations out and stablished protocols needed for that our current plan is to build seventy four stations and we have the corps of engineers building those for us as i mentioned earlier fifteen of those sites have already been site surveyed so we know what the what the requirements are the others will be done in the next few months and then twenty four months is what we estimate it will take for us to get all those stations in place and tested and ready to operate so and so for the record you will have almost doubled or doubled the number of stations up to the numbers seventy four with and how many months did you say within twenty four months then claim and you have a plan and implementation plan for doing it rather than a given us a report that the product that their program is on is on budget and it is on time and we don't expect to have a problem with delivering the stations as promised  is the pap station the primary way we should be giving these alerts today talking fifty years of  progress and so on maybe not yeah i think what we need the greatest number in the shortest amount of time or should there be more than one way to reach the greatest number what do you do in a n infinitely mobile society to make sure that there is notification that is timely madam chair is a primary in tree point for the message to get to the broadcast community so that's what makes the pep station so important because it's the gateway into everything else and all the other capabilities that we mention as i mentioned in my earlier testimony another major breakthrough has been the the ca i mean is covered by the by the public by public radio stations which are connected to the system through satellite but they don't have a primary entry point so there is a different approach but there are problems with that approach because that i mean does that mean they would get necessarily have someone at the stations all the time or to have fuel and redundant systems in place they're not called merge where our they may not have backup and so forth that's correct mr diaz a lot i think you may have a vote  in florida and thank you for for the job that you've done there one of the concerns that i have is and again i promise for the fact that we know that you have been there long and we understand you know what i know your and you mention that sixty nine of those plants people were out there that ninety percent about ninety percent of the population would be something to get notified correct but that's assuming they work and we have some questions about them working in the information nation being at this so even that is frankly a bit of a positive outlook is it not rosy yes it is this is the limited testing that's been done so far indicate that there are problems with the system in which a message may not be received by the intended recipients now am i to understand that there's none in southern florida there is not one of those in southern florida pep stations or yeah it's i i would have to get back to  obviously colonel our concern would be that that these deadlines continue to slip and i don't know if you want to comment on that whatsoever yes or i would please if i could first of all will provide an outline of the pep station locations back to the committee within thirty days  not just for states for florida and for maine but give me an idea of where they all outline i apologize for this graphic and not having provided it ahead of time but i thought about at the last minute i thought i would bring it over i think this will help explain part of your question about the timeliness and and watch things take so long for us to process but i'd like to preface those comments by saying that i'm here now i have a  very clear vision i've communicated that throughout and i do not plan on changing that and we've also made some recent hires of some very dedicated experienced professionals that will keep us on track but the graphic is on my left and it's not important you be able to read the words but i ask you for your attention to the three yellow bands that they go horizontally and then the three pieces that go down the left in blue this is a snapshot of our overall systems plan and what i did was took a small part of that to to illustrate how things run concurrently and how some have to run sequentially so if you take the first the first bullet there cross the top that talks about the ca p you can see in the f was zero nine the development process that we did it took us an entire year and you can see the blue arrow there and that is the balloting that i mentioned as a major breakthrough with alwa this and that is important again because it's establishes a standard for everybody to adhere to for all the equipment that they bring forward the next period that you see between those two diamonds at the top is the amount of time that it will take us to have industry do their physical development of the hardware and the testing of the hardware this required and then the final part is this to the right of that diamond is the one hundred eighty days that are required by  regulatory required to give the broadcasters time to implement their plan so when you look at that first row from left to right it seems like a lot of time transpires and it does  but a good portion of that is testing and fielding that we have to have to allow the hardware to be developed and then the amount of time for the broadcasters to be able to implement that now if you look at that chart from top to bottom though it will show t other programs that are happening simultaneously see mass development and then the pep station development that we've talked about before so i say all that to tell you that i think my biggest personal challenge is to maintain momentum of our program i think we're on the upswing on stakeholder by and i think we're on the upswing on education i think we're on the upswing on buy in from the states locals territorials and tribals but my challenge is to make sure that when they look at single injuries as i just mentioned on this development plan that they don't focus on where they necessarily fall in that only that one line but that they look vertically as well and see where they fall into the whole program and where we need their continued support throughout the whole program grow let me ask you and i guess that's why i started saying we all as you understand your new and i've seen your track record and obviously i'm also a big fan of  the new film the director as well who we know very well in florida and i keep saying unfortunately because we wish we didn't have to deal with these issues but we do but now you know can i can we can we get your commitment that that you will commit to courtesy most emergency managers often say that one of the biggest problems of alert systems is that they basically kind of frankly hit way more people that are in harm's way which obviously impacts the usefulness so one of the benefits of the modern system would be the ability to target alerts to those affected communities and how localized would an emergency manager be able to target an alert under the system that you're looking at  with the sir with the systems that we've looked at so far in texas and washington we've really asked to be able to do two different things and they have systems that for feel part of this need but their overall vision is the ability not only to  target specific geographical areas and they would those could be as large or small as the communications infrastructure would support if we're talking about sending a cellular message of course there's a limit to the number of calls that can be made at one time but over time then that number is is in essence infinite but our challenge there is to make sure that we target in the right sequence so we get the most affected areas first that some of the work we're doing there the other part of the work that we're doing and looks very promising is the ability to integrate plume modeling and other devices so it helps us decide which areas get targeted and which areas get notified first so if you have an industrial see somebody really in need i got to ask why i wouldn't build a pep station there seventy four you know twice the number you have now ma'am i'll have to get back with them what i'd like to do  you don't rely on it here you don't rely on it in florida how can i wayne main got left so that it's got big cities it's got roll areas so i need within thirty days an explanation as to why an entire state is left example maryland virginia work work very often through the center of the universe and you will find other areas where the center communication system will overwhelm overlap but i'm looking on are you know you've got up in that area new hampshire and massachusetts saturated and and i'm just at a loss to understand why the the the targeting mechanism for the pep stations of i can understand it then it could be quite fine but if you make me understand that and whether i'd like to know in thirty days whether want what's going to be done and because i have no idea what should be done i'm not saying what should be done but if in fact with an almost doubling or more than doubling of the number of pap stations and i want to know if vermont and maine are to remain uncovered why and what what is to assure them of fairly equal access by which i mean of course twenty four hour access somehow the other somebody on the network has twenty four hour access yes ma'am sure and i'll get you that and i'll get you over all coverage for the nation as well so that you understand what areas we  reach the original plan for the pep stations as i understand it was to focus on the larger populated areas first and then as you do the build out plan go to some of the more sparsely populated areas that may be why maine is doesn't have currently have a station but the focus was to try to reach as many people as you could as early as you could and then build out the capability from there but i'll get a i'll get a proper response back to you madam chair thank you m i serve on the homeland security committee as well we have been in terrible conundrum about interoperability in the lead in the rest but i say i'm really caught short of how to get my arms the brown state and local governments going out on their own i don't know what they're doing i've no idea whether they'll be useful  i have no idea how it will be tied in to what i ever is being done at the national level and i'd like to hear from both you make me understand why single dollars spent at the state local level today is guaranteed in any way to have any relationship to what it is that is being done in the saddle or perhaps we ought to have fowls and flowers to bloom so maybe this multi there should be a multimedia approach we have many different ways of communicating today you could have a national system this system that you're building out plus these other systems but i need to know how you envision how you see what for example we did end up with would look like given where the state and local governments are and you know how far ahead of our day of us i think it varies madam chair for instance in our survey recently that we did of all the state emergency management directors we found that the majority of them are building their own systems without regard to what the federal government kind of systems are they focusing on they they vary in different kinds of ways some of them would be compatible with what the federal government is doing in fact ten of them already use a cap compatible system but most do not and many of them have so let me stop you there if they're not using a compatible system what would be the effect of what they're doing well it's a potential tower of babel in which the state and local governments and the federal government would not be able to get out or most of that systems then that's correct they would not be able to get out of a message effective and i ask you and mr penn sounds to me that states are in bad need of guidance and i'm telling you they're going to come in here and they're going to testify that we made them do it that without federal guidance particularly in places that i would think i would feel themselves particularly vulnerable if i was on the east coast or a west coast you folks would know i just have to move i have some even the even if even in a matter that affects interstate commerce as a matter of constitutional law if the federal government will not it's a whole the courts will allow here of course nobody will question is raised to show you just how responsible state governments will feel well folks do whatever they have to do so i am very concerned that in the shall we call it fascination with technology with people going around selling people the moon that we are going to have systems upon systems built billions of dollars spent for one and only one reason there's been no federal leadership no federal guidance so what else can you expect people to do you need to tell me what we should do what the subcommittee should be doing what you should be doing right this moment to inform or alert the states in  locality whatever it is whatever it is you think they should know madam chair i think your assessment is exactly correct we've got fifty states with fifty solutions because there are fifty different sets of problems  and the reason they have had to develop their own solutions is because we have not given any national level guidance and and haven't given them anything that they can use to build the systems on the continue go back to our common that's the kind of thing that impresses this committee well we may be a military background helps to explain why you understand cold and how goals mean steps and that nobody believes in goals without steps so so i am very pleased to see what what you offered us this is my concern i am now this the state of potok located in the county of no where administrative can i'm about to put out an order for this super duper technology way better than he  asked anything you could possibly do what is your advice and counsel when i write you tomorrow and asking what you think i should do i'm about to put it out with a little bit of stimulus money will use some of that up on it protocols so we make sure that your systems can communicate well all the analysis is mr federal government i'm on board with everything you've got given me so far which ain't much which is why we're doing our own yes ma'am that was the plan you will also fin direct question and i will not stop until i spend a direct answer if you need to go back and figure it out that's the best answer if you think you know what you would do then that is an answer but doing what they are already doing well is not an answer no madam chair referring to the protocols that we're getting approved through ace's foundation right now those will establish the language that all the computers need to speak so i ask you as a state if you are buying anything that it hears to those protocols that way go to calls which will mean your your system will be compatible with whatever we do in the federal government and those protocols already exist those are currently being ballot on by the organisation i expect those to come out and be published in the next week or two and then those will become the industry standard for all the equipment that is developed that we are going to use as a federal government and it will be if you purchase equipment with the same protocols you'll be able communicate with all the federal government equipment you'll also be able communicate with all of the other states that are developing programs so if the if indiana has a good idea and they develop a system then you'll be able to purchase their system to use in your state and you'll you'll be ensured it is compatible with everything else that the federal government is using and other states you had all go through that phase of the federal matrix of your protocols so you'll know about indiana cetera yes madam chair for lack of a better term and i have a stamp on it that says it is compliant with with cap so in light of that you would not say don't go you would say go if you would like but with the protocols you get this crap yes madam chair because throughout this whole process as i mentioned there are fifty states with fifty different sets of needs there they may have quit meant that they need to develop to notify people in a rural area that might not necessarily be needed in an urban area so they may need to do some of that too to satisfy their own requirements as a state and their own alert notification requirements but if they're lined up with these protocols and i'll also be able to channel from the federal government the message all the way down through all of those means that they have down their citizens by the redundant capabilities that we're discussing missed a payment hypothetical hypotheticals come out of my experience a lot faster and my hypothetical someone has had the press and  actually asked you before spending his money your testimony in testimony mr goelz in these people are asking the understands the federal government my next question is don't you feel that you should pu t pro active guidance on the time you've just given and perhaps other concerns on matters now to the states and localities chair thank you absolutely right i think what we've done up to this point is we've had a coalition of the willing and the states that have participated in the broadcast organizations that have participated already into what we're doing and are all very supportive that again i think that the states that have elected to participate and that the broadcasters and others that have elected to participate have all bought into what it is or we're asking and they agree that we're going in the right direction i don't know the way elected means because your testimony indicated there had been outreach can you therefore explain that's why you make those elected are the ones who can come forward and knowledgeable but why is it that we have found many stakeholders including broadcasters association to local government officials who are unaware of the i pods program that was frightening they have your goals someone never heard of i pods a g r u the state survey respondents said they had received little or no information so who is a that thing to come forward well yes madam chair and that's why i said elected because we have not winter with the state emergency managers one of the items on his agenda is to discuss i pause to make sure they understand what the system is and how it works and that's going to let to come that will be all of the state emergency managers in that form i think that's  administrative would you also tell us within thirty days how you intend to inform the stakeholders what you are doing in a readable and brief anough form to be read and to julie and my concern with with them knowing about doing their own system without making sure they're going to be compatible to have any idea missing goes into how many of these systems are not compatible isn't that so understanding the right now only ten states are kept compatible but i need to also mention one thing which is cap is not a magic bullet cap does not allow for the receipt of live audio for instance and so there are questions about the ability of cap to be an effective product of course of the question of what is the update and reinvent itself into newer and newer forms of technology ok there comes a point when whatever is the next doodad is not of much interest to me it may be of interest to my grandchild it is not about playing games it is about systems that are state of the art when i have to be updated every year in order to be  useful if you have a vision of what you're doing in mr p and i certainly see a new vision for for i parse what is the vision for a communication system that would incorporate more than the cap system recognizing that the states already and to some systems beyond the old traditional system just member the cap is for lack of a better term  language that says that any equipment that you have will follow the same language so that is the thing that got natural really really warm people and here is do we really want people to be people to the salesmanship of high tech types who always have a new doodad for you and some advice and counsel on what it is we're aiming for that people want to spend their money over and above what it would take to have a national system that incorporated technology state of the art technology recognizing that that covers a broad field would you be would you be in a position now or in the future to offer them advice about what a national system ideally should look like yes madam chair i think working with them they will tell us what the system should look like that's another deficiency i think we've had is we haven't actively solicited the solutions that are there and the need for what mechanism do we need to have in place for doing that kind of this station well first thing we need to do madam chair is build some confidence and some credibility and what we're doing because part of the problem i think we have with the stakeholders is they are not ready to come forward because we haven't proven as the federal government that we can deliver what i just told you we're going to deliver i think will go a long way with that with our test that we're doing in january in alaska where we do an end  test of the network which will be the first one that we've done at that level before and it will follow by the end of two thousand and ten with a nationwide test from in to and that will show that the whole system works so know the testing will well and in fact that's happening will be and important but these people aren't even trained to use the present system too many of them seeing nothing at the federal level haven't even bothered which is the here we've had to put in a bill directing that there be advisory committees what would a true empath system of input look like and and are you building such a system yes madam chair and i see it as a series of conferences and committees and subcommittees a real organization that doesn't address the the overarching problem we know what that is and we've discussed the systems that we need but we need someone like mr weimer behind me here are mr whitmore behind me here to take mission and can get together with a group of technicians and they can discuss the solutions and work out the nuts and bolts of how you state subcommittees for stakeholders in compliance with the federal advisory committee act and that's happened on yet apparently neither the federal or the state advisory committee have been implemented and that's why you know we just put a billion neck and you figure when you're talking to grownups you get a commitment that's all it will take but we have other devices known as a matter of law we also have procreation bills that can cut people's funds or make people use their funds in certain ways but that that's that's really is where you deal with children so you speak about these committees and thirty days i want to see the outline to this committee what a system with stakeholders embedded in your work virtually embedded since you're right you can do this blueprint style top to bottom what it would look like it doesn't have to have all of the stuff we just want to outline of what it is you intend and if you if you submit that to us and would submit this around the country  it seems to me you would begin to let them know that it is coming that is a matter that the subcommittee wants to do that you want to do and that is going to happen this time because they have had their promises  staff turnover so sure if you can have a lot of staff turnover then whoever comes in is going to something that may be different unless it's so firmly blish that there's a reason to continue it  and of course everyone knows you've acknowledged that the personnel shift have have affected your work now one of the problems the subcommittee has and when we know that an agency is in serious is if it's largely relying on contract workers not building it in and contract workers can go off to the next contract if somebody happens to get a federal contract and we were disturbed at the figures from thema as as a reported by g a o g a o june two thousand and nine it's very recent twenty seven contractor staff five so i've got to ask you about staffing permanent staffing that show us and show us states and localities that this is a new beginning men i'm sure i have a combination of both currently i have eleven full time positions and i pass of those eleven i have seven that are filled i have one that we just got a name against we are made an offer to the other three close out this rely less on contract they know this and the present majority believes that the proliferation of contract workers has meant more and more hands off as far as our ability and the agency's ability to track its own progress to know whether or not there's any been any progress at all because of the way contracts work now why is security and and to all we do to alert people about natural disasters why is there this division at all still got you got to pay money out why you prefer to pay it out to people responsible for your contractor and this may not be his most important contract and you can put those people out any time he wants to if he thinks he's got another contract down some d o d contract he better get that done or they've got a deadline on this one so off those people go and we'll i mean why is this work is important has thema got this kind of subdivision so i mean this kind of division of work man i'm sure is a good question  addition to the eleven permanent staff that i just mentioned we have fifteen contractors that are part of our program management team they do technical support they have to build that operation and house that you don't have in the house well one of the challenges madam chair is this is one of the reasons why we have the contractor support the ridge the reason is at different times throughout the project we need certain capabilities and certain technical skill sets that we might not necessarily need when we get to other parts of the ball and we can understand it if in fact you were to tell me that these twenty seven people had skill sets that are useless to of all people the department of homeland security except on this project then i would understand because nobody would want to permanently people for particular with these kind of upgraded skills but you have to you're part of department of homeland security i can tell you as a member of that committee had not been particularly impressed by their own level of technology so i can understand that this is supposed to be an end date i must say in light of the poor record  we've gone on for so long but i want just to put you on notice you are new mr penn that we are going to require you justify a contract employees as necessary i goldstein how has having contract work is move on and off affect the ability of i pod to develop i think the combination of not having much of a permanent staff in the government and the turnover of the staff and the turnover of the project managers there's been for two years combined with a contract staff that is that is not permanent has clearly affected the programs and implementation the changes in vision and the slowness of the programs development i would also add that we think that some of the pilot projects that were put in place under i pause because they have not been able to document lessons learned these projects in fact a consultant recently determined that of twenty eight projects there was only status information available for eighteen and that was only partial information they've had a very difficult time documenting information project was precisely to document it so you use the information to move forward so whatever happened to these pallet projects and how much in federal funds has been spent on madam chair i think mr goldstein is referring  among others to the contract project that we had several years ago where we in fact did not get the product that we were required to receive we did not get the lessons learned we did not get the  the results of the project as were outlined in the contract that was a single overarching contract that covered pretty much the whole of i pause at that particular time we d not have any contracts like that now and i do not plan on initiating contracts like that the management of the system is my responsibility and mine alone and we will continue to do that but i think there are times in the forseeable future that we w need short term contracts for specific pacific parts of our system and what we're doing out of the total number there were reports on you would you say eighteen there were some in there was some information available on eighteen of twenty eight was not a lot of information deliverables the status of deliverables were were only partly available according to the consultant and a lot of the documentation that would help seem a use the pilot projects to implement permanent solutions was simply not developed and moved forward either for their own use sort of the use of the stakeholders mr penn within thirty days subcommittee wants to figure out how much has been spent and total recognizing that some of it might have been useful how much is spent and hold on power projects this subcommittee wants notification to head out and there's a separation of powers you can do that if you want to do it we want notification if you intend to do any power projects we want to see what what the palace projects before and what the deliverables will be and how you will enforce them do you intend to do any projects in the future in the near future yes madam chair this program that i mentioned in alaska where we test the full system is in fact a pilot project and wh n that happens in january this year next year thirty days want to see it want to see what the what the what the plan is how we will track it how how we will use it why it was chosen i'm going to ask the ranking member who has returned if he would if he asked me questions before i finish my questions thank you madam chairman i know that you want to move along so i will be brief right ahead particular g a o points to mr headlines and and timelines and timetables and we talked briefly about the fact that appears to be a number of discrepancies between the humans i pause implementation plan issued in june of this year and what most previous timetables tables were and i i allude that before but for example the current implementation plan includes a targeted of two ten two thousand and ten the geo targeting capability but famous previous timeline was two thousand mp stations expansion is now slated for two thousand and ten to two thousand level as opposed to previously when it was supposed to be two thousand and eight so you know how can you account for why i pause program has failed to meet these deadlines and what you know obviously you know yet we need your assurances that we have that we will meet those timelines and i think we've already given those those assurances but obviously i think you understand why the nature of these questions when you look at some specifics in the g a o report there's i think again part of our problems with the overall project management the way we've done that and what we haven't haven't done think as an organization and we have also not done a good job of management of the system and and i'll provide the status of where we are in updates to you quarterly as i committed to earlier i would like to think that i could say that everything is going to proceed on track and that there are not going to be any  any problems or any time slippage is of any programs that we have to support i pods but i don't think that's realistic i think the way we manage those and how we handle those and how we make them work with the other other parts of the program demonstrated i think an urgency for this legislation to move forward and i and i appreciate you committing to getting back to this committee mr goldstein i don't expect you to comment specifically on a bill whether into his bill which is on and sponsored i think that any effort to improve the accountability fema to achieve the objectives and to be able to put together a program that runs effectively that has goals and that's provided not just to congress but can be used by stakeholders to chart their own course all of that is very helpful being able to communicate with the public and the stakeholders will be critical as well you also mentioned in your testimony having marks but you mentioned obviously that you know state or local governments are implementing warning systems which may be difficult to integrate with the broader  system and would it be fair to say that time is of the essence yes i think one of the reasons that states have moved out on their own is because there has not been clear direction from female over the last couple of years and they've felt the urgency to do so on their own  with the slow movement here because the h s is fully involved and natural events as well but what is the involvement of d h h s with a system that has lagged so far not able to document the reporting requirements or performance measures that were mandated by fame or d h are there now for regular reporting requirements are there now regular performance measures there were some very vague goals that most people would not commonly refer to as all those different from those protocols for example that mr pan spread across the there were some very very general objectives for what a for what a program would be and they changed fairly quickly there were no we were not able to obtain any performance measures implementation plans over a long period of time did not exist and again general documentation that you would expect to see in the the audit of any program simply were not available so mr van i want to ask you what you've got here so you see what you don't have and that's what th c the next time let me ask you about the training that it was very disconcerting to hear the stakeholders unable to use existing system  program where all if you wanted to establish credibility with the stakeholders probably the very best way to do do it would be to offer training on what you've got now pending what you're going to have rather than saying i'll just wait until you see the bells and whistles and we'll really train you we think many of them don't know how to proceed on the present old fashioned system would you tell us what you expect how you expect feigning to be accomplished yes madam chair a number of a number of solutions are available we've just started working with the  emergency management institute which is our controlling body that handles our training programs internally for emergency management within that we've  started to build a core structure with a number of courses that will be available online for emergency managers on the basics of how to work the system also as we continue through our program model we have several milestones for when we have to accomplish several training goals within that so that we keep the users level where they understand what kind of equipment we have and what they're supposed to do so training is built into our long term plan some will be electronic means training that thing access from the internet but some will be part of our emergency management training in some of the courses that already exist and some courses that we're going to have to add in the future so we already have federal level courses for emergency managers adding parts into that curriculum as part of a solution and then adding specific courses for specific task is also part of the solution i'm trying to find out how people get framed on what you do now versus and then how you how you then build up to training what you're putting into effect so we are information is that the lapse in and communication from washington and help from washington means many people are pretty rusty with the present system i'm concerned about that because it's clearly going to take you a few years to get the system up could you get us within thirty days a continuum on training beginning with right now and some people say well that's one thing i know how to do can make people be trained but if they know what they don't know by saying look this training is a what do you call it when you've already been trained sustainment trained yeah something like that that we recommend for even those of you who think you know the system and then go forward from there that's a way of saying look we care about the stakeholders and one of the right one of the reasons you see it is now we're doing is training even for those of you who are most advanced there are some things that you probably need to know and i'd just like a working group on to test the system for the record when do you believe the president yes message will be able to reach the public what is the part it depends on the outcome that i have from alaska that i mention as i said before that not only gives us the information we need to know if the system is functioning as we think it's functioning but it also gives us the buy and that we need from all the stakeholders part of problem in the past has been that the broadcast community was not willing to donate air time to do a system wide test because regardless of when it is that interrupt some portion of our programming now would be a good test longer than that than that then the one that beeps and goes out for what can only be called a minute or so no madam chair would necessarily have to be any longer but it would necessarily be at the time that they chose to do it we could certainly do it at a time when there wasn't broadcasting you know that's what that's when they try to do a lot although i can tell you somebody heard him in the dead of night here or shall i say the dead of warning i just can't believe that if they thought there was a serious effort in washington you learned people that you were going to do this to as we've chosen it based on where you are at the lowest what tends to be the lowest viewer point if that's what you want you're not trying to see how many people are listening right i was hard to believe that if by that time you got your training you had to advisory groups people would have greater confidence that you get much resistance if you chose the time based on the time zone in which a particular locality is found and that's my point exactly madam chair we haven't given much confidence in the system to this point so that they know that this time as well spent and that is my beginning to get something done and i thank you are excused and i'm going to call now panel number two good afternoon chairwoman norton ranking member of the as the members of the committee and thank you for allowing me to discuss my concerns about the emergency alert system before your subcommittee today as you stated my name is richard made them the director of my own emergency management agency and i'm also here as a member of the national emergency management association before being appointed to this position by governor o'malley in june of two thousand and eight i spent thirty three years as a first responder in baltimore county maryland including fifteen years as the county's emergency manager and director of homeland security so today i bring to you both a state emergency management director perspective and also a local emergency manager my passion for the emergency alert system began in september of two thousand and three when the system failed the residents of baltimore county as tropical storm isabel was pounding the middle anak region at approximately nine p m the night of september eighteenth isabel was pushing water up the chesapeake bay my office wrote an emergency alert message urging residents of coastal areas of eastern baltimore county to evacuate to higher ground unfortunately the television stations decided not to air the broadcast immediately instead they treated it as a press release and ran the information on the eleven o'clock news for some in the affected area that was too late by the time they were announcing evacuation recommendations on the late news we were scrambling to get votes out to the stranded residents we later learned at the broadcasters didn't think it was appropriate to interrupt the regular programming to the entire baltimore viewing area for an  official message affecting only a few dozen but for the residents it could have been life or death information fortunately none of the residents of that area were killed or seriously injured because of the flooding however the emergency response did make for some anxious moments for the residents and also risk the lives of the first responders who rescued them much of that could have been avoided if we could have depended on the media to broadcast the alert in a timely fashion allowing people to safely evacuated so today more than six years later have things gotten any better in some ways yes technology in maryland we have improved assist dream system for distributing yes messages back in two thousand and three the system in maryland relied one as you heard was known as a daisy chain system that is alerts are first aired from larger stations and then carried by smaller ones but the primary station in a chain chooses not to air those messages those below do not receive it and do not air any messages now thanks to improved technology we can notify a much larger portion  participating stations immediately though if you still depend on the daisy chain system and thanks to better coordination between my agency in the maryland d c delaware broadcasters association i have more confidence that our state local emergency managers or my agency can get important messages out in a timely matter but still a state or local emergency manager nationally cannot depend on local radio and television stations to broadcast an emergency alert that is because stations are not mandated to carry such broadcast although they would be required to broadcast a presidential alert there may be times that the president would be broadcasting life saving emergency information in the global war on terror for example the president might be the right boy to calmly direct people across the nation to take appropriate action in the face of an impending attack but the vast majority of protective order messages are going to come from local and state emergency managers to warn residents of impending floods damp ill years chemical spills and the such that clear regulations requiring radio and television stations to broadcast state and local messages we cannot be assured that the public will get the message before it's too late my written testimony contains a more detailed technical description of the improvements we have made a look at some of the improvements planned for the near future along with some concerns about emerging technology and federal regulations but briefly here let me offer several recommendations first because both the federal communication commission and the federal emergency management agency control various aspects of the emergency alert since system delays have prevented needed regulations from being implemented in a timely matter fema must adopt needed regulations expression in regard to mandatory participations by broadcasters and while fema seems to be working towards enhanced public alerting in general the progress is much too slow the f c c meanwhile seems reluctant to allow the new procedures and technology capabilities that would make it easier to broadcast the right message to the right audience at the right time second leadership and coordination issues between thema and the f c c related to a learning systems must be resolved immediately and the coordination needs to be communicated down to the state and local level finally we need funds to help pay for the continued operations of various systems including not just d a s but other complementary services such as various tech cell phone reverse nine one one and other existing technologies we are just now learning that the department of homeland security and some of the grants we received from them are now being restricted to not be used for continuation of service which will also here for the states in their ability to maintain these these systems once again i thank you for allowing me the opportunity to appear before you today in any  more than hand glad to handle thank you  but i have witnessed this man go out there before the storms and after the storms going door to door individually to try to make sure that people get the message because unfortunately in some areas there is no other way to do it and  i've been a part of personal witness of that it's a privilege to have them here it's it's a pleasure to represent color county but particularly when you have public servants like commissioner collette and his colleagues in the commission i mentioned that the director of emergency management for color county is also here accompanying him that a great professional there's a reason why florida does the best job in the country and it's because of individuals as you well know in leadership and so it's great to have one of those individuals who shows great leadership and great caring you're with us today thank you ma'am joe thank you mr diaz a lot of mystical added with that kind of introduction we expect great things and you know i appreciate the kind words i truly do madam chair and members of this subcommittee good afternoon my name is jim cotter and i like it county commissioner district five of collier county in southwest florida naples is the county seat however i represent a district that covers  land area equal in size to delaware includes the big cypress national preserve and parts of everglades nash no park one community in my district is a mock league which has a population of approximately twenty thousand people at two thousand sas the census identified seventy one percent of the population in a mock way to be let tino and i believe that that number has grown over the past decade the per capita income is only eight thousand five hundred seventy six dollars and forty percent of the population lives below the poverty line a mock lee remains the center of the regionals agricultural industry the farms of a mockery mockery produces significant portion of the nation's produce and employ thousands of seasonal migrant workers i am here today to share with you my firsthand experience about the need for an improved public alert and warning system that can notifier citizens i'm appending these aster in the early morning hours of october twenty fourth two thousand and five hurricane wilma a category three storm with winds of one hundred twenty miles an hour fall in collier county the first hurricane to directly strike our community in forty five years thousand of thousands of county residents were impacted property damages was estimated to be in excess of one point two billion dollars in sadly several deaths were attributed to the storm while cop coastal collier county was able to recover from wilma in a relatively short period of time thanks in part to good building codes that are strictly enforced a mockery with its older homes and trailers that predated our building codes took a major hit resulting in hardship for those residents it was only by good planning by our emergency management team led by mr dan summers who has joined me here today dedicated and hard working government employees and the self reliance of our citizen their cool recovery it was achieved in relatively short time in the days in the hours leading up to the storm we found our safe self faced with an enormous challenge of trying to communicate to the residents of a mock lee the need to evacuate or seek shelter or take other protective measures a problem that was compounded by the fact that it was harvest time meaning that thousands of the additional migrant laborers were in the community the majority of the housing in a maki consisted of old trailers it was evident that many of these trailers would not survive a major wind event and the structures needed to be vacated and the residents needed to be moved to public shelters at our local schools the local media outlets were focused only on coastal carroll county where the bulk of the population lives  and charlotte county with little information being provided to the residents of the mockery despite the best efforts of our emergency management office there also existed at the time a weak communication structure between the commercial farms and local emergency management officials the challenge became even more evident when commercial growers want to get in that dish nal days harvest prior to the land fall of the storm force winds which was deemed to be too risky based upon the timing variables of the storm of course our biggest challenge was the language barrier only one spanish language radio station serves a mock way along with one weekly newspaper the spanish radio station was abandoned by its staff and off the air the day leading up to the event in an effort to reach out to the a mock the residents i listed the help of the spanish spanish spanish speaking in creole speaking county employees in volunteers from the coalition of a mockery workers and officers from the sheriff's department we took to the streets of a mockery going door to door encouraging people to go to the public shelters before the storm arrived i also wanted to persuade them not to work in the field until until dark as usual the day before the storm otherwise they would miss the free bus transportation the county was provided to take them to the shelters or might find themselves arriving at the shelter filled to capacity during the storm a vet it was very clear to me that the farm workers i encountered that day were unaware of the dangers facing them as the storm approached and were prepared to go to work in the fields they had not understood the radio and t v weather forecast reports in english only as a knock down the doors with the interpreter at my side i was utterly amazed to find that most people did not know a major hurricane was coming and did not know their lives were in danger and remember this was less than twelve hours before the hurricane made landfall some workers ended up staying in the field until dark but we were able to convince the sheriff's office to keep the bus for on buses ronnie to take the workers to available shelters and fortunately most people who wanted to get to a shelter managed to do so the damage to a mockery from hurricane wilma was enormous the lessons learned from our hurricane wilma experience is that there has to be a better way to communicate emergency information to nine english speaking communities our emergency management program has launched a number of initiatives to better serve the very unique challenge in the a one that seems very promising is called a mockery recovery coordination group and is a multi agency working group made up of the government agency social service and it these and faith based organizations that represent a diverse language and culture the mockery community when activated they are responding to in coordinating recovery efforts we are so publishing in distributing spanish language storm preparation guides storm preparation c d s and spanish in korea and have door hangers emergency information available we are utilizing churches and civic groups to communicate these aster outreach message and are developing plans to enhance public transportation resources we are very experienced in southwest florida preparing for hurricanes during the two thousand and four two thousand and five in addition to women wilma we were also threatened by hurricane charl frances ivan jeanine dennis katrina can train a hand rita i believe we have learned that all these esther's are local and no two disasters are the same for any community rule farm communities will enjoy the rule lifestyle face many challenges as it is related to the me communications and coordination ever censor akane wilma impacted my district in two thousand and five we have witnessed that continue explosion of new technology that enables us to communicate with each other from virtually any place at any time it would seem reasonable to expect government to be able to harness this technology in a way that can help people during times of crisis especially those that have traditionally not connected to so called mainstream communication channels in closing i would be missed if i did not recognize mr craig who to get a new fema administrators as you know greg serves as the director of the florida division of emergency management under two governors and did an outstanding job guiding the state's preparedness and recovery efforts during the hurricanes wildfires and other emergencies i'm certain he will do the excellent job for fema crags understanding the critical need to communicate with citizens who may be in harm's way and we would certainly be grateful for any assistance that can be provided by our  government to assist us in protecting life and property during emergencies thank you i'd be glad to entertain any questions that you may have department and other sources today i'm representing the association of public television stations and more than three hundred sixty public television stations across the nation i also have good experience in this area as a person who was downwind after mt st helens erupted and saw the role both the good in the bad broadcasters play in these situations when public television stations made their investment in digital transition equipment in the late one nine hundred ninety s we quickly realized the significant advantages that digital technology could offer to education public health and public safety digital televisions bandwidth can be partitioned into multiple simultaneous wireless content streams creating a system that can serve the public in many ways at the same time one of these ways is sending data that contains emergency information training videos maps or blueprints to enhance public safety and public television's congestion free digital bandwidth is able to simultaneously support public alert and warning systems as well as encrypted networks to enable public safety and emergency management agencies to transmit vital information securely to personal computers computers in police fire or ambulance vehicles or computers connected to local area networks in las vegas this is done through the use of a small digital television receiver that we had manufactured and have installed in one hundred sixty locations this receiver can is was purchased and installed per vehicle for less than three hundred dollars when public television approached the department of homeland security with a proposal developed in part by tests originating at our station in two thousand and two the digital emergency alert system was born through a cooperative inter agency agreement deployed nationally as a part of the original d h s s fema i pause plan the infrastructure provides for a digital presidential emergency alert and warning system to supplement the current broadcasters e a s it also serves as the foundation that can facilitate governor and local authorities use d e a s for state and local emergencies at vegas p b s we worked with this system by securing grants to build out the d e a s technology to deal with school emergencies earthquakes and other threats we have blueprints hazardous material locations utility connections and other information on over four hundred public buildings residing on a data server in our facility in a school him or jency we can send first responders vital medical information on medically fragile students complete blueprints authorized parent or guardian information to reunification centers and other data we also have fiber lakes to the state's emergency data center with similar information on over two thousand five hundred critical infrastructure sites they have identified and catalog other local public television stations in the communities we serve across the country can replicate the successes we've had in las vegas with this system with appropriate assistance from congress i'd like to offer two recommendations on behalf of public television that can enhance the national alert and warning system as well as public television's local emergency response capabilities in this area first a pause by congress which you have so ably demonstrated today is essential to ensure the quality and reliability of federal alert and warning systems the legislation or dues by the chairwoman  ranking member in h r twenty five ninety one takes the right approach we greatly appreciate being included in the i pause modernization advisory committee as public television believes it can the offer a unique perspective on these issues second the war in iraq made funding available to stations to provide the equipment necessary to send geo targeted messaging and to allow for better bandwidth allocation management this will enhance station's ability to create local alert and warning systems however those funds are currently being held at n t i a awaiting cooperate coordination with fema  request that fema work with n t i a to expedite the release of these funds in order to enhance the build out of the yes tomorrow will be the third anniversary when these the bill authorizing the release of these funds was signed by the president as this week's headlines have featured fearful stories of people who were allegedly acquiring chemicals for potential subway bombings it is clear to me that alert and warning cannot be put on hold or delayed again thank you for inviting me today to describe public television's alert and warning capabilities i look forward to answering any of your questions  so good afternoon representative my name is carlos wesley thank you so if you would be time to have to translate we'd appreciate it thank you when i started this i in san diego in my testimony i will talk a little about the experiences of the farm workers during the two thousand and seven wildlife fires wildfires in san diego and i will also offer some recommendations a great danger to san diego did not come with us because the word freedom losing their jobs or fear of immigration  you're in an emergency we can inform the local government about what is happening and we can also transmit messages from the government to our communities those are you that all those would oppose anything from a community that to help the community to chairwoman ranking member diaz bella i thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today and provide testimony on behalf of hearing loss association of america and approximately thirty seven americans with some kind of hearing loss i'm lisa hamlin the director of public policy and state development for hearing loss association i have a significant hearing loss myself and have experienced emergency alerting issues from a very personal perspective i'd also like to thank the committee for providing the captions that are appearing here and has helped me participate and this hearing to now is part of my job i have delivered presentations around the country about emergency preparedness for people with hearing loss all over and over i've heard stories about emergency situations that were more difficult more frightening even life threatening because of communication difficulties during emergenc and i've been there on september eleventh two thousand and one i was in my office in manhattan when the world trade center was hit my coworkers first reaction was to turn on the television when we did we found the news with not caption now for me it wasn't as much of a problem because my coworkers interpret it for me but for people who had no action of the captions who were alone and being isolated at a very scary time then i moved to the c area around two thousand and two just before the sniper attacks now when television programming was interrupted with breaking news about the shootings in gas stations or in malls or near schools people with hearing loss were left behind now those stories they were not captioned they told us because they were not obligated to because had not been triggered i guess what that means is that people with hearing loss don't deserve to have access to the same information at the same time as everyone else so when i'm asked we'll e s the liver the president's message to people with hearing loss i wish i could give you a confident yes but if a major disaster happened tomorrow i cannot say with certainty that people with hearing loss will receive the message and inaccessible way just this month a woman from kansas city missouri wrote me saying recently the weather sirens went off at the local and the local station i was watching interrupted the news to report the storm but without captions i was a laugh not knowing just what was happening and i ended up calling the police to find out i may be old but i'm still interested in the local news and i also feel very unsafe and about storm now when i asked that woman if i could use her story she said yes but don't bother about the name i'm not looking for fame i just want to help i just need help being able to keep up with the world and that's all this community wants we want to be able to keep up with the world just like everyone else and now we know technology has changed dramatically since nine eleven and people who are hard of hearing or death have embraced this new technology easily eagerly we use text messaging to a the degree that most people except perhaps teenagers they may have us beat but we need to exploit this new technology we need emergency messages that reach each and every mobile device directly we need emails and internet messaging that can be accessed instantly we need research on what makes these emergency messages understandable we need video emergency messages that are posted online with open captions in addition to sign language versions for the those who need that we need our states and local communities to have the capacity and policy in place to caption their stream this video's justice we need the national messaging systems to support that and we need broadcasters who post videos online to caption those videos and if it's an official who is talking with a sign language interpreter right next to them why can't we get an angle that shows them both of people who need both can get that that just makes sense we also need to think about redundancy justice emergency managers will tell us when the power goes out many people can turn to portable televisions or their radios but for people with hearing loss that won't work there is no requirement for captioning on television smaller than thirteen inches so we have no access to portable television and no access to radio we need to change the rolls so that smaller televisions and smaller devices altogether will be able to be captioned and we need to support projects like the national public radio's project to make captioned radio  reality we also need to support all the recommendations coming out of the national center for acceptable media w g b h on the access to emergency alerts and there's been research coming out of  that's also been very valuable to help us get the access to literature we need as well as through nighter of the national institute on disability and rehabilitation research at a time when there's so much in the way of new research new technology that offers hope to people with hearing loss we find we are frustrated that these new technologies are not being exploited in the way they could be people with hearing loss find their needs are often forgotten or remembered after the fact we need to for that to change we need to be included right from the a star hearing loss association stands ready to work with you to provide information and resources as well as to get the word out to consumers we have a list of recommendations which i will turn to for the sake of time i'll let you see in the written testimony that we thank you for this opportunity to provide our testimony and we urge you to take the steps necessary to ensure people with hearing loss get all the information they need when they need it thank you thank you thank you ms ms hamlin and that let us move on to questions as a courtesy i ask do you think that that time is of the essence to move forward and do you think that this legislation would it would be a positive step and how much of a positive step in dealing with some of these issues and that's where we want to deal with that all of you however the chairman would like to deal with and that's that's all i would have the stage congressman if i may go first once again thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today anything that you can enter into this mix to be able to get more information out to the public in a timely fashion be extremely welcome i don't think there's ever such a thing as too much weed done to information gone out the time of an emergency would would we would strongly support public television the advancement of this bill and also the expenditure of funds from the war an act that have already been authorized i think that will greatly strengthen the system and i i would like to out technology is going to keep changing we're now in las vegas building out a new four g network i pause shouldn't wait for the four g network or the next computer card or the next thing we need a system that we can deploy today for the next hurricane or earthquake or whatever the disaster is and then as these new things come along as if they're kept compliant and so on we will be able to wire them in to a system of systems so much  have we took note of that so we will we'll be working on that thank   the testimony mr moss where we're pretty close to where you are and it's kind of classic example where the station entire baltimore county an area and you can understand their frayed by the switch from twenty four to some of something else about technology they don't even have  they argue that it only would affect a few dozen homes or so now do you think that the integrated public morning system as it's called as it is being built out would take care of that problem what would you have the federal government do with respect otherwise with respect to an emergency that is confined area and with respect to what the broadcasters should be required to do yes ma'am first off i'm not familiar with i pause i have very little if any knowledge of this system at all we haven't been to engaged in the in the process but regarding the problem we had in two thousand and three when you're not you're not familiar with  question the other day preparing for this they've been involved with two conference calls but that's been about it that's that's been the test is major and this is one of the reasons we're having this hearing today yes ma'am if if you don't have the by an emergency management system located on the cusp of one of this center pieces of target then you've lost the confidence of all of us so we are aware of how events your own system is so it's important to get on the record go ahead sir yes so i think our problem in two thousand and three and i would have the same concerns today once again is that the broadcasters are not mandated to send anything out that's from the state or the local jurisdictions since since as as was said earlier there's never been a presidential declaration or when the using the system they have always been used at the state or local level without that mandate leaves us hanging and never really knowing for sure whether these messages are reaching the public or not oh wait a minute now the broadcasters that's why i'm asking you what should the federal government do that a broadcast is obviously a mandated to do what what is very very very very very very and put a lot of areas out there rare right why i think it has what is it do you think the federal government should mandate  i suspect to such territorial or area matters from my perspective both from local and state i would still say that the f c c needs to mandate that the license broadcasters have no option that if   or one injury why in the country was was the care somewhat neighbor would that be too much to ask so that's important is anyone who disagrees with that do you think  even though it may be confined to an area within an area with an area you think is too much dance thirty minutes thirty seconds for everybody now the reason i say everybody is because if it's not everybody somebody is on try to get the run on somebody who's taken thirty seconds out from his broadcast in order to say and always the whole we will use that remote so you think it has to be a universal requirement in order to be effective  axtell well i'm not sure i should speak on behalf of all the broadcasters in the entire country but i can certainly say i'm baffled our station and i think most public broadcasters that we take these alerts very seriously and the state of nevada we were concerned that many many many people as a whole level of decisions would want to access broadcasting for messages that may seem important to them but in the scope of things  may or may not be and so our state has a policy where the state police can initiate an initiative so there is some secondary look at the scale and scope of the issue so we get presidential alerts we get local alerts and we've made the decision locally that if our health department says that after a forest fire in los angeles comes in and we threaten people with asthma or other lung problems we'll run those alerts as well continental united states if everybody's got that alert i don't see the argument and i'm open to it if anyone does for not taking thirty seconds to issue alert why wouldn't  confidence that if you get in trouble there's going to be a similar alert and therefore the system works yes and i would like to counter mr axtell only and that i certainly appreciate the concerns of the broadcasters what what i can agree to is that i as the emergency manager for the state of maryland is appointed by the governor would be second guessed by anybody as to the issuance of a message that i think it goes out and same as a local emergency manager if that person deems this message is important enough then it should be pushed it shouldn't be thought about is to somebody else who's not in that position to make that call make social because you know this was in your local area yes ma'am it was in my county so it's hard to understand the justification in the affected area and i can isolate that you know and i'll be the first to say that they can isolate it just to the you know twenty square miles that we had impacted by the storm and i certainly understand because they bro to many these are major stations so i'm sure they handle a large part of the state mystical anna yes thank you again if i may i've had a little bit of experience with merge to management i got involved well before  commissioner with the local emergency management director came up with a couple programs that help develop with them that i want for training fema training two different summers and emmitsburg maryland i can tell you the for the most part local control is of the essence if we wait for anything to come down from upstairs state or federal it's going to be too late to react we need to have clear channels to be able to work across we need to be able to work on a local level we know what the people need but the problem is you don't always have the mechanism to be able to reach out when you need to and so it's not so much who the communicators are we know they should be they should be local people sitting on top of the situation the problem is how do you get the communications out to all the different mediums that are out there what federal requirements can be put out there to make this possible in a meaningful way well but you see this is the agreement that at least the thirty second warning should be mr moggs you want that mandated but at the same time you say in your testimony is vital to the state to manage their own he has requirements well what was the state of maryland's requirement and did it have a requirement that the county carry this life and death message for these residents of the county we internally ma'am have a have the procedures and processes but once again we don't know the t v stations or radio stations so once we got to them they chose not to push it so nothing we could do it i guess whether the federal matter comes in yes ma'am we don't all know but we regulate the license um and as long as the federal government doesn't say you got to carry it they're going to they're going to decide whether they want to or not and they'll be the first one out there after the damage occurs getting the story will be on the ground saying you poor thing and send some stuff to all you people but not to warn them in the first place yes ma'am so we  will be working very closely with the f c c to make sure this coordination takes place madam chairwoman please if i would like to also point out that the warren act provided for g targeting messages and that's exactly the complaint that you say the maryland broadcasters were concerned would move closer to the microphone that the warren act provided funds for public broadcasting to be able to do  targeted markets are emergency messages so in our case we have a broadcasting translator network that is about three hundred eighty miles north to south we currently run emergency messages for snow emergencies in one of our counties even when it's eighty degrees in las vegas we just do that because we carry every emergency message that we're asked to carry but if we had geo targeting we would just carry it in white pine county or a county like that and not not disrupt the viewing in las vegas and that's part of what the warren act permitted and i think that would vastly increase voluntary compliance but i'm not arguing that you shouldn't have mandatory compliance for a bonafide emergency mess percentage or portion of the population of the state of florida is spanish speaking at this  point i'm sorry madam chair but i really can't answer that question and i know in your county it's about twenty four percent that speak spanish it doesn't mean spanish is the roaming language means is it's their main language were to do a test and it did not include ways to reach people such as those mr hammond testified about people with special disabilit did not breach people who speak a different language could that be considered a test of a national system could be  what i'm talking at the national level exercise that we're working our way up to suppose we did a national level exercise any english for people who have no special disabilities what would that mean reaching the this is people that speak a minority language that was the big difficulty and that's what drew me to a mockery rather than going to other areas in collier county are being well served by the media at the time i knew there was going to be a lack of communications there the how you reach of them is was in our case was door to door because there was no other way available to be able to reach and what have you had a real test sense then of using when i say a real test you have constant ramon ramon so would you have to go door to door next month yes may have to reach people who speak well manages a first language yes if i may i we put together a mac an ism in place so that i personally don't have to mobilize large numbers that people would mobilize or use i'm mobilize them in a in a matter of like i say eight hours a week hero don't have any way to communicate do i pause or no i don't think i know this in the midst axels talking about the i only got to get people on the ground in the storm to reach the people who would be disproportionately affected precisely because of their language or because of their disability the only the only thing we have going for some other than door to door is a low intensity f m station that the coalition of  m migrant workers has it's an organization it's a low intensity station that they reach a certain number of the population out there we can run emergency warning strew their only problem is that they don't reach everyone it's a limited clientele that they are they're reaching at the last storm it was in place first thing it did the atlanta blew down and then the power went out i got him a generator for merge the management and they ran out of the thank you gas that came with it no gas was available in the area so i got a local marina to give him gasoline to get him back on the air but you know once again if this was a local initiative other than that radio station that was willing to stay there the regular their regular radio station the commercial radio station abandoned their post at the time of the storm before the storm even gassier the polls mr romney and people like him had cell phone devices or other similar devices could the state and that of sending out professional personnel who had their own who may not be close to the particular area could the state deputize people in grassroots organizations through by supplying them with  to take on that function if train and if given the devices to inform them while we're getting a whole new system up i'm a man management chair you're right on target the way what i can tell you is it other than four years ago when i was dealing situation today just about every migrant labor has a cell phone now the problem is they already equipped if we just have people who follow through you have you know we need to be able to have some system to be able to reach out to him you know they have a reverse calling system the sheriff's department doesn't call your county only problem is it will reach cell phones so what good is well it's good for a lot of reasons but not for this particular reason you say well i'm sorry it's good carries party or person anymore i have a walkie talkie you're not going to carry it around but you're not going to carry a so when i say radio with with cell phones that was the only problem was is that the technology that as we understand at this point in time makes it very ground now other than you go out there yourself one of the first things i primates suggest madam chairman is i would allow mr ramon and some members of his community attend the  organization concerned with migrant workers or latino workers ever been invited to attend any session that would train you on how to contact equipped to do that contact were the ng is sitting here trying to think of commonsense ways to fill the gap it will not be acceptable to say well they knew we were working to have a census forms things h you know as far as i'm concerned katrina is in the meantime and the notion the federal government saying well my lord we were thirty percent of the way through what he expects of us we expect you to have and staff what we want to know is in the absence of any way to communicate to mr graham all of them and his fellow members of his organization even as we heard how well they're doing with plans to get up we need to know what to do until then you make shift as this may sound that's how we've done it in this country all along what do you think they did a hundred years ago when there was no no more and no you know you carried the word you did what you could i don't know what to tell you but if they're reaching out to us as they claim reaching out means not only look what we're going to have when they we had a spanking new wonderful system it means that the federal government and f c c and local and state governments have a responsibility for public safety in between doing whatever you have to have seen homeland security give grants in this particular area and the d c area the provide text messaging about local events which has been pretty effective what the problem has been when i just received an email last night from a person in california who had signed up for text alerts about tsunamis because she's concerned about what effects on the pacific and she got an alarm that basically was impossible to read she didn't know what to do she got an alert but she didn't know what to do so we need more research to figure out what do you say when you get an alert because what's what's happening is it's ad hoc the firefighter on the job is now sending out text messages so that's a problem the other problem i'm concerned when people talk about knocking on doors because people with hearing loss may not hear i've heard situations where emergency managers have gone down the street with bullhorns and people have been inside and not knowing what's going on so for this community my community is very has like the what we just heard about cell phone use we have access to text messages and in  fact in maine also we did know maine had a program for people with a specifically for people with hearing loss where they set up they gave people an option of getting a no radio and no weather radio or getting  f something that would allow them to speak back and forth so that they would get specific on margin sailors in maine because they knew that the cell phones wouldn't reach all areas so they had a program with a grant which gave them our radios they would need so they would get those emergency alerts so these are some of the ways that even though the states are strapped for money it's very hard to get up a system like this unless they get money from homeland security or fame or some apparently what we have a system has some technology in place some way to contact people average person and person who speaks english but  incorporating people with disabilities or and here's where you really get interesting people speak a different language now we the fastest growing group of such people of course is spanish speaking but think about how what our country is becoming a patchwork of people who speak all kinds of language a lot that's what you are that's what you will have to do or else the  injuries and the deaths will be disproportionately we know exactly where they will be i don't understand most of all of where you said the media outlets those places what's a problem the problem is very simple once again it has to do is the division of language yes markley receives television you know they had several stations they have radios but just about everything comes across the english that was they were they weren't picking up on it and that's why there was so many people that were not aware of what was happening and said something i mean there's been some things that have taken place since then that course we're talking four years ago and we're trying to improve what we can as far as our communication infrastructure goes but it's still a big gap in there and it has to deal with the people that do that speak english they just can't get the message at this point in time that people who don't speak english or people money to be able to survive and maybe send a little bit back home again their very narrow scope of people generally spanish speaking people that are permanent residents within the community have picked up enough english to understand what's taking place there doesn't seem to be that kind of a problem are spanish speaking stations tuned in to this system way other stations are giving the emergency alerts and the rest well for the most part yes but in this one case in america and that's what why they don't put it across the english open or a spanish i mean the fact that they probably don't see a need for i don't know what the requirement that the mandate is long if you don't have a thirty seconds it could be maybe even better if there was some way to a separate van with his i heard suggest what the band with where you could have a person just dial up a different language or any language doesn't have to be spanish you could be vietnamese and they'd be able to hear their translation take that it's an amazing how bilingual they are especially since the rest are so damn we can hardly speak english but so they're going to be they've got to be quite able millions of them  here to it to facilitate down to the lowest common denominator but if there's information out here saying you can find out what that says and if you're dealing with the largest groups just like you know you have christmas you information is shared as to what is happening all over that area all the way up to oregon from personal to oregon as well but the problem is this all in one hour on sunday and it's all in the pacific coast but it lavatory perhaps there was some oversight because something he didn't know how could why did that occur has spoken to us we have only seen this gentleman going back and forth but he hasn't talked spoken to us necessity to arm even if we're translators and people who are major figures such as a fire chief with somebody who can communicate to people who need them out of course they can go or not go if they want to they go to the same except if it's about an order of evacuation you're not supposed to have any recourse and of course you need to know how to get out yes so even having somebody on the ground we've been talking about what it was in the school that i had to do may not be enough if that person can't speak the language either and therefore will take  way i only have another question or so i wanted to know and i have to ask about the use of digital now the digital came on and it looks as if there's a whole new way mr axtell for maine and for my and for that matter for greater way to be alerted them on there are a lot of stations that are very interested in pursuing this but it's a financial issue financial how much you had some that you said was only three hundred dollars and that's that's that's a solution that is that is a device and that's because we did a small run on a custom activity i think if you mass produce do you get it for a much lower price but we have a whole variety of p stations that are interested in working on this kentucky sends out wireless messages about tornadoes and other weather information to highway rest stops and other other kinds of innovative activities wisconsin has sent some material to hospitals and ambulances alabama is proposing to have a system that would replicate the system and enhanced  we have in so you have lots of people who want to move forward but the trick is you've got to have your emergency management folks who have critical databases so you will become a redundant  provider of data or they have to help define what the services are that they need and as you pointed out urban versus rural services will be very different well if  had done what it was supposed to it would be digital now digital is here providing a whole new very important way the technology to feed into the system i want to thank all of you for this testimony of course we heard from their responsibility to szell's but i want to say for the record that your testimony has been equally important to this subcommittee and thank you very much for your testimony