FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Kirsten Gillibrand United States Senate 478 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Gillibrand: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Kirsten Gillibrand participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Kirsten Gillibrand Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Grace Meng U.S. House of Representatives 2209 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Meng: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Grace Meng participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Grace Meng Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Dianne Feinstein United States Senate 331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Feinstein: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Dianne Feinstein participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Dianne Feinstein Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Raúl M. Grijalva U.S. House of Representatives 1203 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Grijalva: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Raúl M. Grijalva participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Raúl M. Grijalva Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Bob Casey United States Senate 393 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Casey: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Bob Casey participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Bob Casey Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Salud Carbajal U.S. House of Representatives 2331 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Carbajal: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Salud Carbajal participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Salud Carbajal Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Mazie K. Hirono United States Senate 109 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Hirono: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Mazie K. Hirono participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Mazie K. Hirono Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Gregory W. Meeks U.S. House of Representatives 2310 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Meeks: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Gregory W. Meeks participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Gregory W. Meeks Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Ben Ray Lujan United States Senate 498 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Lujan: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Ben Ray Lujan participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Ben Ray Lujan Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jasmine Crockett U.S. House of Representatives 1616 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Crockett: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jasmine Crockett participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jasmine Crockett Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Tammy Duckworth United States Senate 524 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Duckworth: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Tammy Duckworth participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Tammy Duckworth Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton U.S. House of Representatives 2136 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Norton: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Alex Padilla United States Senate 112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Padilla: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Alex Padilla participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Alex Padilla Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Yvette D. Clarke U.S. House of Representatives 2058 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Clarke: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Yvette D. Clarke participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Yvette D. Clarke Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Robert Menendez, Sr. United States Senate 528 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Menendez, Sr.: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Robert Menendez, Sr. participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Robert Menendez, Sr. Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Nydia M. Velazquez U.S. House of Representatives 2302 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Velazquez: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Nydia M. Velazquez participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Nydia M. Velazquez Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jon Ossoff United States Senate 455 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Ossoff: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jon Ossoff participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jon Ossoff Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jerrold Nadler U.S. House of Representatives 2132 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Nadler: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jerrold Nadler participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jerrold Nadler Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Katie Porter U.S. House of Representatives 1233 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Porter: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Katie Porter participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Katie Porter Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Suzanne Bonamici U.S. House of Representatives 2231 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Bonamici: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Suzanne Bonamici participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Suzanne Bonamici Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Adriano Espaillat U.S. House of Representatives 2332 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Espaillat: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Adriano Espaillat participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Adriano Espaillat Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Pramila Jayapal U.S. House of Representatives 2346 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Jayapal: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Pramila Jayapal participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Pramila Jayapal Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Josh Harder U.S. House of Representatives 209 Cannon Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Harder: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Josh Harder participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Josh Harder Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Juan C. Vargas U.S. House of Representatives 2334 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Vargas: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Juan C. Vargas participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Juan C. Vargas Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Doris Matsui U.S. House of Representatives 2311 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Matsui: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Doris Matsui participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Doris Matsui Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Ed Case U.S. House of Representatives 2210 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Case: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Ed Case participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Ed Case Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jamaal Bowman U.S. House of Representatives 345 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Bowman: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jamaal Bowman participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jamaal Bowman Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Nanette Barragan U.S. House of Representatives 2312 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Barragan: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Nanette Barragan participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Nanette Barragan Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Marilyn Strickland U.S. House of Representatives 1708 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Strickland: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Marilyn Strickland participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Marilyn Strickland Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jill Tokuda U.S. House of Representatives 1005 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Tokuda: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jill Tokuda participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jill Tokuda Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Suzan DelBene U.S. House of Representatives 2330 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative DelBene: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Suzan DelBene participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Suzan DelBene Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Daniel Goldman U.S. House of Representatives 245 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Goldman: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Daniel Goldman participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Daniel Goldman Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Sara Jacobs U.S. House of Representatives 1314 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Jacobs: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Sara Jacobs participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Sara Jacobs Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jim Costa U.S. House of Representatives 2081 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Costa: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jim Costa participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jim Costa Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jan Schakowsky U.S. House of Representatives 2408 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Schakowsky: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jan Schakowsky participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jan Schakowsky Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Marc Veasey U.S. House of Representatives 2348 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Veasey: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Marc Veasey participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Marc Veasey Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Mark Takano U.S. House of Representatives 2078 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Takano: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Mark Takano participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Mark Takano Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Kevin Mullin U.S. House of Representatives 1404 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Mullin: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Kevin Mullin participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Kevin Mullin Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Grace F. Napolitano U.S. House of Representatives 1610 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Napolitano: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Grace F. Napolitano participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Grace F. Napolitano Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jesús "Chuy" Garcia U.S. House of Representatives 1519 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Garcia: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jesús "Chuy" Garcia participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jesús "Chuy" Garcia Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Jimmy Gomez U.S. House of Representatives 506 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Gomez: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Jimmy Gomez participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Jimmy Gomez Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Susie Lee U.S. House of Representatives 365 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Lee: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Susie Lee participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Susie Lee Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Andy Kim U.S. House of Representatives 2444 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Kim: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Andy Kim participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Andy Kim Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Judy Chu U.S. House of Representatives 2423 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Chu: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Judy Chu participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Judy Chu Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Lizzie Pannill Fletcher U.S. House of Representatives 346 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Fletcher: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Lizzie Pannill Fletcher participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Lizzie Pannill Fletcher Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly U.S. House of Representatives 2265 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Connolly: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE CHAIRWOMAN March 2, 2023 The Honorable Mary Gay Scanlan U.S. House of Representatives 1227 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Scanlan: Thank you for your letter regarding language accessibility in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. I recognize that natural disasters do not affect all communities equally. Hurricane Ida, for instance, demonstrated that in addition to the challenges presented by the storm itself, there are challenges that arise out of language barriers that can limit the effectiveness of safety information and outreach. For that reason, I share your belief that our emergency alerting systems need to do more to deliver essential warnings in the language that is most likely to reach those in the communities who need this information most. After all, having accurate facts in a disaster can help save lives. I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation that was wrought by Hurricane Ida when I visited Louisiana shortly after the storm made landfall. I traveled from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to survey the damage to communications and speak to people in the areas most affected by the storm. When I returned to Washington, I held a Disaster Communications Field Hearing in order to learn more about the gaps in our emergency alerting capabilities and the steps we can take to better prepare for the next storm. I am proud to say we are making progress on that effort. At the Federal Communications Commission, we have adopted new rules to improve the resiliency of our wireless networks. These changes will help restore communications service faster, speed up emergency response, and keep more people connected. We have also taken action to improve emergency alerting capabilities, including partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nationwide test; establishing new partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies to gather more granular information about WEA performance; and initiating rulemakings that would require wireless providers to publicly report on WEA’s reliability, speed, and accuracy, and also put in place practices to protect it from security threats. In your letter, you ask whether the Commission has had discussions regarding multilingual alerting with industry stakeholders. You also ask about the steps the Commission has taken to reach the growing, non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups, the technical feasibility of expanding WEA languages beyond English and Spanish, and the challenges that industry faced implementing the Spanish language requirement. At the outset, it is important to note that WEA was created in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006 as a voluntary program. In other words, no wireless carrier is required to offer WEA. At the same time, since the passage of this law, mobile devices and wireless alerts have become increasingly important for disseminating information during a crisis. While I would welcome any efforts to update this law, I want you to know that under my leadership we have worked to ensure the Commission can use it to full effect. This is particularly true when it comes to multilingual alerting. Last month, I sent letters to the nine largest wireless carriers that Page 2—The Honorable Mary Gay Scanlan participate in WEA asking them what they can do right now to ensure that WEA messages are accessible to as many language communities as possible. The letters ask about current practices as well as the state of machine translation technologies that could be used in emergency communications for translating alert messages into the most commonly spoken languages in the United States. In addition, the letters ask about whether and how mobile devices could receive a signal to display pre-installed, pre-scripted WEA alerts in the default language selected by the user. The responses we have received are publicly available online in our WEA docket (PS Docket No. 15-94), and I will incorporate what we learn in a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. This rulemaking will be a significant milestone in our efforts to advance multilingual alerts. But it is important to note that other complementary efforts to improve the reach of alert messages and expand the availability of critical information in additional languages are ongoing. To this end, I have charged the Commission’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to study ways to improve the effectiveness of the presentation of WEA alert messages by using capabilities from other mobile device applications and firmware. Mobile devices often contain a suite of features that, if leveraged in the WEA context, could make the emergency information that WEA messages contain more accessible to more individuals, including features to better support non-English and non-Spanish speakers. I look forward to reading CSRIC’s final report, which is expected later this month. In the meantime, we continue to engage non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups through outreach and other efforts. For example, the Commission has presented to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders’ Language Access Subcommittee about its approach to multilingual alerting for the Emergency Alert System and WEA. In addition, the FCC routinely reaches out to local television and radio stations broadcasting in languages other than English as part of its preparation for storms and other events that may affect the nation’s communications systems. We share emergency communications tips developed in partnership with FEMA in Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, along with audio PSAs in each language. The Commission also has produced printed versions of tips in Hmong and other languages to further support communities that may benefit from in- language information. Consumer information about WEA, along with all our other telecommunications consumer guides, are also made available in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the FCC’s website. With respect to existing challenges, per your request I want to note some concerns that have been raised by industry stakeholders in the record before the agency. Right now, initiation of the alert message—and the content of the alert message—is dependent upon the more than 1600 federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial government entities across the country that are authorized by FEMA to send alerts, who are commonly referred to as alert originators. Stakeholders have expressed concern that alert originators may lack resources to send alerts in languages other than English and Spanish. To help address this challenge, the FCC has provided guidance to assist alert originators in sending non-English alerts and non-Spanish alerts, including best practices for multilingual alerting developed by the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. The FCC also conducted a workshop in 2019 to promote the use of multilingual emergency alerting. In addition, we understand that FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)— which serves as the federally administered alerting gateway through which wireless providers access WEA messages—currently does not support alerts that use non-Roman characters. Today, if an alert originator attempted to send an alert using non-Roman characters, IPAWS would reject the alert. While I defer to FEMA on any specific challenges it may face in upgrading IPAWS to support non-Roman characters, it should be noted FEMA was successful in upgrading IPAWS to support the transmission of alerts in Spanish after we required wireless providers to support those alerts on their own networks. Page 3—The Honorable Mary Gay Scanlan Finally, industry stakeholders have suggested that the number of languages that can be sent with each alert may face limits due to the method that wireless carriers are currently using to transmit WEA alerts to their subscribers. In our discussions with the wireless industry, we have learned that when they transmit a full-length multilingual alert today, they are actually sending four separate messages—an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each less than 90 characters long (which is necessary for older devices that do not support the display of longer messages) as well as an English alert and a Spanish alert that are each up to 360 characters long. To support one additional language, two more versions of the alert would need to be sent, which requires more data. If a new character set must be supported for that additional language, industry stakeholders have suggested they may require additional standards development and changes to software to ensure that those languages were implemented compatibly across all networks and devices. At the Commission, we are reviewing these concerns and exploring innovative ways to tackle these challenges. For example, the New York City Emergency Management Department supports multilingual alerting in 14 different languages through its Notify NYC application. I understand the application presents an English-language message along with a link to 13 other pre-scripted translations. I also understand that these alert message translations have been written by people fluent in the languages and vetted with native speakers from language communities. This allows alerts to reach communities of people who otherwise may not understand the alerts they receive. In my letters to the nine largest providers in WEA, I specifically asked about their ability to replicate or improve on this model. As I noted above, these responses are publicly available, and I will use them to develop a new rulemaking to advance the Commission’s work on multilingual alerting. I hope the above is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make WEA more accessible to non-English and non-Spanish-speaking communities. Sincerely, Jessica Rosenworcel