[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5154 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5154
To require the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
to carry out a program to provide technical and financial assistance to
State, local, and Tribal authorities to conduct testing of emergency
alert and warning systems, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 4, 2025
Mr. Mullin (for himself, Ms. Pelosi, and Mr. Weber of Texas) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
to carry out a program to provide technical and financial assistance to
State, local, and Tribal authorities to conduct testing of emergency
alert and warning systems, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Resilient Emergency Alert
Communications and Training Act'' or the ``REACT Act''.
SEC. 2. SUPPORT FOR EMERGENCY ALERTING SYSTEMS.
(a) In General.--The Administrator of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency shall carry out a program to provide technical and
financial assistance to State, local, and Tribal authorities to conduct
periodic field training, end-to-end testing, and community-based
exercises of emergency alert and warning systems, which shall be in
addition to support provided under any existing program.
(b) Requirements.--The technical and financial assistance provided
under subsection (a) shall include--
(1) funding and training for community-based exercises,
including organized live testing at the local level;
(2) assistance with establishing a clear delineation of
roles, responsibilities, and standard operating procedures
within the emergency alert and warning chain of authorization,
including across local, Tribal, State, and Federal authorities;
(3) developing and publishing templates for emergency alert
and warning messages, in accordance with evidence-based
scientific research, that--
(A) may include message completeness requirements;
and
(B) build upon existing training materials;
(4) training on best practices for crafting, disseminating,
and assessing the effectiveness of emergency alert and warning
messages, provided across different platforms and
jurisdictions;
(5) development of standardized metrics to assess the
effectiveness of emergency alert and warning systems;
(6) testing of technology and infrastructure for emergency
alert and warning systems, including multimodal capabilities,
to ensure such systems are working effectively and in
coordination with one another;
(7) technical assistance for the development of public
education campaigns that explain how emergency alert and
warning systems work, actions by individuals required to ensure
they receive alerts and warnings, and how individuals and
communities should respond; and
(8) review of, and recommendations for, local policy and
standard operating procedures regarding the use of emergency
alert and warning systems.
(c) Operational Plan.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with State,
local, and Tribal authorities, shall develop and submit to Congress a
plan for carrying out the program under this section. Such plan shall
contain anticipated costs and metrics to assess the effectiveness of
such training, testing, and exercises.
(d) Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of
this Act, and annually thereafter, the Administrator shall submit to
Congress a report on the field training, end-to-end testing, community-
based exercises, and public education supported under this section and
such report shall contain--
(1) for each Alerting Authority under the Integrated Public
Alert and Warning System and for each State, local, or Tribal
authority receiving assistance under this section that is not
an established Alerting Authority--
(A) whether the authority has conducted field
training, end-to-end testing, community-based
exercises, and public education relating to the
emergency alert and warning systems of such authority;
(B) the frequency and scope of the activities
described in subparagraph (A);
(C) whether the authority has established
sufficient standard operating procedures regarding the
use of its emergency alert and warning systems;
(D) a description of the percentage of individuals
or regions covered by its emergency alert and warning
systems;
(E) a description of the methods used to obtain
public participation and feedback, and their results,
during and after such activities; and
(F) a description of opt-out rates for emergency
alert and warning systems during and after such
activities;
(2) an assessment of the effectiveness of such field
training, end-to-end testing, and community-based exercises as
measured by the metrics contained in the plan required under
subsection (c); and
(3) any recommendations for updating such plan.
(e) Sunset.--The authority provided under this section shall
terminate on the date that is 10 years after the date of enactment of
this Act.
(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be
appropriated to the Administrator to carry out this section $30,000,000
for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2035.
(g) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be construed
to require State, local and Tribal authorities to be mandated to use
any particular emergency alert and warning system.
(h) Emergency Alert and Warning System Defined.--In this section,
the term ``emergency alert and warning system'' means any system used
by a State, local, or Tribal authority to warn the public about
emergencies or natural hazards, including such systems that operate
through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
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