ms. fowlkes. mr. bergmann. >> chairman thune ranking member nelson merris the committee we thank you for the opportunity to testify about the critical and successful role of wireless alerts. tci commends this committee for its focus today on this issue and for your leadership on it over the last decade stemming back to the passage of the warrant act in 2006 which created the wireless emergency alert or wea program to the partnership between the wireless government and public safety officials. agoe its launch five years where this emergency alerts have become a critical resource for hundreds of millions of americans who rely on mobile phones every day. today wireless providers serve more than 99% of u.s. subscribers voluntarily participating in wea. more than 33,000 wea alert to vincent hoping to locate those in danger and worn out than a minute threats are dangerous. members are deeply committed to ensuring we remain trusted effect of resources of the american public. underscores the importance of the

ms. fowlkes. fema, who we should be directing things to, don't you think on some of those questions you were unable to answer? you said didn't you have authority? >> to the extent that you're asking about anything other than the communication had our authority, our regulation of the communication service providers participation, i would agree. >> yeah. ms. fowlkes, it's my understanding that the states are required to file emergency alert st lerts system plans with the fcc. there are a few tribal nations. are they under that same riefrmt filing? >> no, the tribal nation dos not have to file separate eas plans. what typically happens is to the extent that there are parts of tribal nations in states, those states take into account the need of those tribal nations. that's certainly how the new mexico state eas plan is set up. >> good. thank you. it's important to every bureau of the fcc to engage directly with tribal nations and have you had the opportunity to work with tribal nations on their unique

ms. fowlkes. it relates to, in a very kind of a -- a big event that occurred in the alaska just on tuesday morning, very early in the morning, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit in the gulf of alaska. as a result of this earthquake many of my constituents in coastal communities were alerted to the threat of a tsunami and told to relocate inland. many did, it was pretty much in the middle of the night. how however, some of our carriers were not able to send the notify cation because of the lengthy and complicated process required by the fcc to set up emergency alerts on their systems. this is particularly the case with regard to some of our -- many of the carriers in alaska are small companies. so going through the lengthy process, complicated process that the fcc puts a big burden on them, are there things that you are looking at with regard to streamlining the process to take into account some of the smaller companies that can participate? and also related, there have been reports that several coasta

ms. fowlkes, whenever you and your team are ready. lisa: thank you, good morning again. the public safety and bureau is pleased to report a second report in order and second report for consideration that would enhance the effectiveness of wireless emergency alerts. when the the wireless emergency alerts program launched in 2012, participating wireless providers were generally required to send alerts to a geographic area no larger than the county or counties affected by an emergency. oftentimes, however, an emergency affects an area smaller than a county. to address that, as a last -- as of last november, all participating wireless providers are required to transmit alerts to a geographic area that best approximates the area affected by an emergency even if it's smaller than a county. today's order would improve accuracy further by requiring wireless providers by delivering alerts to an area that matches the target specified by originators with an overreach of no more than one mile. this would allow them to send alerts to only those phones located in areas affected by an