Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER ANNA M. GOMEZ

Re: 	Amendment of Part 11 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding the Emergency Alert System, PS Docket No. 15-94, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Feb. 15, 2024) 

When an emergency strikes, we rely on certain trusted entities to alert us and give us the most updated information to stay safe – cable services, and television and radio stations.  In fact, often, it is an interruption of programming that alerts us to the emergency.  But imagine not being able to understand the language in which the emergency information is being transmitted?  That is the experience for millions of Americans that speak a language other than English as their primary language.  
	
	By adopting today’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, we ask these trusted entities questions about the feasibility of incorporating emergency alerts in 13 of the most commonly spoken non-English languages in the United States.  That means – TV stations, radio stations, cable programmers – we want to hear from you.  Tell us about whether the proposals we have made in this rulemaking are possible.  Your collaboration is critical to achieving the goal that every single person in our country has timely information to stay safe, in a language that they can understand. 

Thank you to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for their important work on this item, which is a companion to the important multilingual wireless emergency alert order we adopted a few months ago.  Thank you for your leadership ensuring all Americans are informed during emergencies.  I approve this item. 

2