New Bill Aims To Update Alert System

A new bill in the Senate is aimed at establishing a new national emergency alert system. Sen. JIM DEMINT (R-SC) has introduced the "Warning, Alert and Response Network Act" to update and improve the EAS system, which is presently operated on a voluntary basis; the new bill would keep the alert process largely voluntary but would include cell phone and wireless carriers and would preempt local governments from specifying their own incompatible technical specifications. 

The new system, backed by a $250 million budget, would be based at NOAA, where a national program office would be established and whose director would report to the President and Congress on the system's progress 15 months after enactment of the law.

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