Enhancing Public Safety, Network Reliability, and Agency Operations

Hurricane season officially arrived. It’s important for people who live in potential hurricane zones to think ahead about what their plan is if a storm threatens. The Federal Communications Commission and our government partners also need to make sure we are doing all we can in advance to help the public the next time disaster strikes. That is why I am proposing that we update the nation’s Emergency Alert System (EAS) codes. I am circulating rules for consideration at our June meeting that would add three new event codes to the EAS – “Extreme Wind Warning,” “Storm Surge Watch,” and “Storm Surge Warning.” – so that the public can receive more specific and relevant alerts, particularly for hurricane-related weather. If adopted, the updated rules would require EAS equipment manufacturers to integrate the codes into new equipment and enable EAS participants to update their existing equipment in advance of next year’s Atlantic hurricane season.

Another way the FCC promotes public safety in times of crisis is by collecting data on network outages. Our outage reporting rules have enabled us to detect adverse outage trends and work with industry on solutions, monitor and assist restoration efforts, and coordinate with public safety officials and other affected third parties during crises. In 2015, we identified submarine cables as a gap in our reporting rules. These cables are essential to America’s economic stability and national security, yet licensees currently only report outages on an ad hoc basis. The information we receive is too limited and inconsistent to be of much use. Today, I circulated to my fellow Commissioners new rules that would require submarine cable licensees to report major communications outages to the FCC. Our June open meeting will feature a third item that seeks to improve FCC coordination with Executive Branch agencies concerning issues of national security, law enforcement, foreign policy, and trade policy raised by certain applications involving foreign ownership. Applicants seeking foreign ownership rulings from the FCC have raised concerns that this Executive Branch review process is too slow and needs greater transparency. The 2014 Staff Process Reform Report identified this coordination as needing reform, and since that time the FCC has been working with the Executive Branch and industry on ways to make improvements.