BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AJR 9
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Isadore Hall, Chair
AJR 9 (Cook and Ma) - As Introduced: March 14, 2011
SUBJECT : Public alert and warning system.
SUMMARY : This measure would urge the Congress of the United
States to expedite a solution to provide a public alert and
warning system to alert and warn the American people in
situations of war, terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other
hazards to the public safety, health, and well-being of the
American people. Specifically, this resolution makes the
following legislative findings:
1) It is in the public interest for the Congress of the United
States to enact legislation to establish and implement an
effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and comprehensive
system that will alert and warn the American people in
situations of war, terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other
hazards to public health, safety, and well-being, taking into
account the functions, capabilities, and needs of all people,
the private sector, and governments, to ensure that universal
communication is at all times and in all places available to
warn the American people of impending danger; and
2) It is in the public interest for Congress to investigate and
conduct hearings to inventory, evaluate, and assess capabilities
of federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local public alert
and warning resources in order to develop an integrated public
alert and warning system.
3) Alerting and warning protocols, standards, terminology, and
operating procedures of the public alert and warning system
should be designed without the need for maintaining a database
of personal information so that the privacy of all Americans is
protected.
4) An integrated public alert and warning system should be
designed to deliver secure and coordinated messages to the
American people through as many communication pathways as
practical, and should be developed using the latest technology
so warnings and timely alerts may be delivered to the entire
population when surface infrastructure does not exist or has
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been compromised.
5) The public alert and warning system should be designed so
that the distribution and content of communications may be
adapted based on location, risk, or user preference. The public
alert and warning system should have the capacity to alert and
warn all Americans, including people who have disabilities, who
do not speak English, or who are in remote areas of the country.
6) Cooperation with owners and operators of communication
facilities is necessary to maintain, protect, and restore
communications facilities and capabilities of the public alert
and
warning system.
7) Direct access to training, annual tests, and exercises for
the public alert and warning system should be established and
provided to appropriate federal, state, local, tribal, and
territorial entities.
8) It is in the public interest to establish public education
efforts so that federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local
governments, the private sector, and the American people know
how to access, use, and respond to information delivered through
the public alert and warning system; and
9) Federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments,
and media communication organizations should be required to
consult and coordinate with the private sector, including
emergency response providers and users, for the implementation
of a state-of-the-art public alert and warning system.
EXISTING LAW :
1) Provides that the Public Safety Communication Act (PSRSPC)
has the primary responsibility in state government to develop
and implement a statewide integrated public safety communication
system that facilities interoperability among state public
safety departments and other response agencies and to coordinate
other shared uses of the public safety spectrum.
2) Requires the PSRSPC to make recommendations for state agency
purchase of public safety radio subscriber equipment that will
enable those agencies to commence conforming to industry and
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governmental interoperability standards.
3) Authorizes the PSRSPC to, as technology evolves, recommend
the purchase of nonproprietary equipment or systems that have
open architecture and backward capability.
4) Authorizes the PSRSPC to also make similar equipment
recommendations to any other federal, state, regional, or local
entity with responsibility for developing, operating, or
monitoring interoperability of the public safety spectrum.
FISCAL EFFECT : This AJR has been keyed non-fiscal by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
Purpose of this AJR : According to the author, the purpose of
this resolution is to promote new and improved national public
notification/warning system. The current means of public
notification are not time sensitive, economically insufficient
and have limited effectiveness. There is no single unified
notification system that works on a local, state and federal
level that can reach all citizens in time of emergency.
The author reports, "that various technology companies are in
the process of developing a new methodology for emergency
notification that is efficient, real-time and has no negative
impact on current communication systems. The demand for a new
and improved alert system has been voiced by several entities,
such as the US House of Representatives in 2006 (H.R. 5785),
which established the need for a unified national hazard alert
system. Another example is Presidential Order 13407, which
demanded a new comprehensive public notification system to
"ensure that under all conditions the President of the United
States can alert and warn the American People".
Background : The Public Safety Communication Act of 2002 was
enacted to enable state, regional and local agencies with the
means to better communicate with one another in the event of an
emergency. During an emergency, the interoperability of
communication systems is vital for responding public safety
departments to coordinate their resources and work effectively
together. Conversely, if the communications were to
fail, the emergency could be met with breakdowns in service,
misunderstandings, lack of information, and the possible loss of
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life and property.
To prevent potential breakdowns, AB 2116 (Cohn, Chapter 903,
Statute of 2006) was signed into law to improve upon the Act.
While the PSRSPC had the primary responsibility for developing
and implementing a statewide radio system that allows
for interoperability among all of the state's public safety
departments, it did not have the authority to make
recommendations to local agencies or to require them to purchase
certain types of equipment. Without specific recommendations,
public agencies could be purchasing new communications that were
not compatible and would do nothing to promote interoperability
between agencies. AB 2116 corrected this problem by granting
the PSRSPC with the necessary authority to ensure
interoperability and requiring that any communication equipment
recommended for purchase by the PRSPC meet specific criteria for
interoperability.
At the Federal Level : In 1994, to overcome some of the
limitations of Emergency Broadcast System, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) replaced EBS with the Emergency
Alert System (EAS). EAS allows broadcast stations, satellite
radio, cable systems, Direct Broadcast Satellite systems,
participating satellite companies, and other services to send
and receive emergency information quickly and automatically,
even if their facilities are unattended. EAS was designed so
that if one link in the dissemination of alert information is
broken, members of the public have multiple alternate sources of
warning. EAS equipment also provides a method for automatic
interruption of regular programming, and is able to relay
emergency messages in any language used by EAS participants.
Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) : In June
2006, President Bush signed Executive Order 13407 which
established as policy the requirement for the United States to
have an effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and
comprehensive system to alert and warn the American people.
FEMA is designated within the Department of Homeland Security to
implement the policy of the United States for a public alert and
warning system as outlined in Executive Order 13407 and has
established a program office to implement IPAWS. FEMA and its
federal partners, the Federal Communications Commission, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National
Weather Service and the DHS Science and Technology Directorate
are working together to transform the national alert and warning
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system to enable rapid dissemination of authenticated alert
information over as many communications channels as possible.
The mission of the system is provide integrated services and
capabilities to local, state, and federal authorities that
enable them to alert and warn their respective communities via
multiple communications methods.
Prior legislation : AB 1197 (Torrico), 2009-2010 Legislative
Session. Would have modified the Public Safety Communication
Act to allow additional technology to be considered for improved
public safety interoperability. (Held in Assembly Appropriations
Committee)
SB 2231 (Pavley), Chapter 764, Statutes of 2006. Required the
Director of OES to convene a working group to assess existing
and future technologies available in the public and private
sectors in order to expand transmission of public emergency
service alerts through public-private partnerships. Requires
the Director to report the findings of the working group to the
Legislature within one year of the date the group is convened.
AB 1848 (Bermudez), Chapter 728, 2006 Statutes. Specified that
the PSRSPC annual report to the Legislature shall serve as the
state's strategic plan for establishing a statewide integrated,
interoperable public safety communications network. It also
required PSRSPC to include specified information in the report
and to update the report, annually. Authorizes PRSPC to consult
with and make recommendations to federal, state and local
agencies to advance the integration of local, regional, and
statewide public safety communication networks.
AB 1559 (Gordon, 2005-2006 Legislative Session. Would have
required PSRSPC and the California Statewide Interoperability
Committee to work together and provide to the Legislature a
report that recommends a performance standard for public safety
communications systems interoperability and devices to be used
statewide, provides a timeline for implementing the system,
determines which state or local entities need new communications
equipment, and identifies funding for the system. (Held in
Senate Appropriations)
AB 211 (Cohn), 2005-2006 Legislative Session. Specified the
types of equipment that PSRSPC can recommend for purchase by
state public safety departments. This bill was eventually
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completely amended into an unrelated issue.
SB 1654 (McPherson), Chapter 669, 2004 Statutes. Stipulated that
any state agency that purchases public safety radio
communication equipment must comply with the recommendations of
the Public Safety Radio Strategic Planning Committee, added the
Governor's Office of Homeland Security to the Committee, and
added the Military Department to the list entities to which the
Committee must consult.
AB 1831 (Bermudez), 2003-2004 Legislative Session. Would have
required the Governor's Office of Homeland Security, in
consultation with the California Statewide Interoperability
Executive Committee in the Office of Emergency Services and the
Public Safety Radio Strategic Planning Committee to develop a
plan for the funding of a statewide interoperable public safety
radio communication network. (Died in Conference Committee)
AB 2018 (Nakano), Chapter 1091, 2002 Statutes. Established the
Public Safety Communications Act of 2002 for the purpose of
developing and implementing a statewide integrated public safety
communication system and empowers the existing Public Safety
Radio Strategic Planning Committee to have primary
responsibility.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Eric Johnson / G. O. / (916) 319-2531