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FEMA's Oversight of the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) Review of Coast Guard's Oversight of the TWIC Program

Following the January 13, 2018, false missile alert in Hawaii, Congress requested we examine the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) role in the incident. As part of this review, we sought to determine whether FEMA exercises appropriate oversight of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) used to send alerts to the public.

After examining FEMA’s roles and responsibilities in the public alert and warning process, we concluded that FEMA has limited responsibility for the sending and canceling of state and local alerts. Although FEMA maintains IPAWS as a messaging platform, state and local alerting authorities must obtain commercially-available emergency alert software to generate a message which passes through IPAWS for authentication and delivery.

Read Report No. OIG-19-08

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