The National Weather Service (NWS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sends alerts through NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), now expanded to include warnings for all hazards. National Continuity Programs

The National Continuity Programs (NCP) Directorate, within the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), has responsibility for IPAWS. Redundancy in the dissemination network. In addition, NCP is developing a strategic plan for IPAWS that will align federal goals with the needs of state, local, tribal, and territorial officials. The initial stages of the program are projected to be realized on schedule, according to comments by Mr. Penn and Antwane V. Johnson, Division Director/PM, DHS/FEMA, IPAWS, at a June 2010 meeting sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Commercial Mobile Alerts

In response to a requirement in the Warning, Alert, and Response Network Act, or WARN Act, as signed into law (Title VI of P.L. 109 - 347 ), the FCC worked with commercial mobile service providers to create a Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) that would be able to relay alerts through cell phones. The gateway for CMAS is being developed as part of IPAWS. FEMA and the FCC have committed to a timetable for development of IPAWS and CMAS that is intended to deliver mobile alert messages to consumers by April 7, 2012. Through most of its existence, the alert system was known as the Emergency Broadcast System. Digital Emergency Alert System

The FCC has promulgated new rules to include digital media carriage of EAS messages, the Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS). The purpose of the document was to "develop a national vision and goals" for improving all-hazard warning systems at the federal, state, and local levels. Executive Order: Public Alert and Warning System

On June 26, 2006, President George W. Bush issued an executive order stating that U.S. policy is "to have an effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and comprehensive system to alert and warn the American people." This committee, within a year of formation, was charged with providing the FCC with recommendations on technical requirements, standards, regulation and other matters needed to support the transmittal of emergency alerts by commercial mobile service providers to their subscribers. The digital broadcasting capacity of public television stations is to be used to "enable the distribution of geographically targeted alerts by commercial mobile service providers," based on recommendations from the committee. The CMSAAC recommended that a federal agency act as an aggregator in accepting, verifying, and routing messages. The Future of IPAWS

In the long term, IPAWS should be able to accept any legitimate alert or action announcement, verify it, and relay it to a wide variety of devices.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is built on a structure conceived in the 1950s when over-the-air broadcasting was the best-available technology for widely disseminating emergency alerts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) jointly administers EAS with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in cooperation with the National Weather Service (NWS), an organization within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA/NWS weather radio system has been upgraded to include an all-hazard warning capability. Measures to improve the NOAA network and a new Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS) are ongoing. DEAS benefits from the additional capacity that digital technology provides for message transmission. In addition, FEMA is developing the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to meet requirements for an alert system as specified by an executive order issued by President George W. Bush. When completed, IPAWS should be able to accept any legitimate alert or action announcement, verify it, and relay it to a wide variety of communications devices.
Legislation was passed at the end of the 109th Congress (Warning, Alert, and Response Network Act, or WARN Act, as signed into law as Title VI of P.L. 109-347) to assure funding to public television stations to install digital equipment to handle alerts. The law also required the establishment of a committee to provide the FCC with recommendations regarding the transmittal of emergency alerts by commercial mobile service providers to their subscribers. Committee recommendations provided the structure for a Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), regulated by the FCC. Under the timetable agreed to by the FCC and FEMA, CMAS is scheduled to become operational by April 7, 2012.
The federal agency responsible for completing critical work on CMAS, DEAS, and IPAWS is FEMA's National Continuity Program Directorate. IPAWS began as a federal program that would be available for state and local alerts. Its mission was then redefined to apply only for federal messages, placing the program at odds with the broader goals of DEAS and the broadcasters that transmit alerts. According to testimony in September 2009 before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, IPAWS will once more be developed as a comprehensive system to support the broader goal of combining federal participation with state, local, and tribal emergency management practices. Indecision and shifting goals in the past have, however, contributed to a lack of progress and significant delays in implementing IPAWS and related programs.
IPAWS is incorporating leading-edge technologies for Internet Protocol (IP) enabled communications. Its deployment going forward will likely face challenges such as standards development, user acceptance, system management, and infrastructure funding.