This section contains information on Federal governance partners at the national level and the policies that guide the Program Management Office's (PMO) mission.
Executive Order (E.O) 13407
Established under Executive Order (E.O.) 13407, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) provides the capability to notify the American people of impending natural and man-made disasters. In the event of a national emergency, the President may use IPAWS to communicate to the public quickly, easily, and simultaneously via multiple communications pathways with only 10 minutes notice. Through a federated system of systems consisting of Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations, the Emergency Alert System (EAS), and IPAWS-Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN), IPAWS delivers timely, geographically targeted messages during a crisis to both save lives and protect property.
IPAWS Modernization Act of 2015
The IPAWS Modernization Act of 2015 calls for the modernization of IPAWS to ensure the President can communicate under all conditions, establishes a Subcommittee to the National Advisory Council (NAC) composed of IPAWS stakeholders to expand collaboration and recommend improvements to the system, and requires annual performance reports. The Act includes 19 additional system and implementation requirements which the program is currently evaluating and estimating the resources necessary to fulfill “to the extent feasible.”
Federal Governance Partners
Federal governance partners are important to the success of the IPAWS program. Federal governance partners are Federal authorities who are responsible for national policies and regulations affecting public alerts and warnings. They represent a large and unique segment of the emergency management community and the American people.
Tribal Partners
Indian tribal governments and communities are essential components of our nation’s emergency management team. The IPAWS PMO, in addition to FEMA’s National Tribal Affairs Advisor, supports nation‐to‐nation tribal relationships and recognizes the unique cross jurisdictional challenges they face with emergency management and public alerting. To enhance the preparedness of Indian tribal governments and their working relationship with FEMA, the IPAWS PMO collaborates with the National Tribal Affairs Advisor to work with tribal emergency management on outreach through tribal conferences and tribal associations to provide outreach and training opportunities to stakeholders.
The IPAWS PMO collaborates with tribal governments to further develop tribal education and training curriculum which includes implementation guidance and technical support, as requested. Supplemental Federal grant guidance regarding eligible public alert and warning activity expenses through the Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program is also provided by the IPAWS PMO. Additionally, the IPAWS PMO works with the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) to provide education and training on IPAWS to tribal emergency management through webinars demonstrating the system’s capabilities.
FEMA’s Mission and Initiatives
The IPAWS PMO Strategic Plan supports the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) mission: helping people before, during, and after disasters. Furthermore, IPAWS advances the 2018 - 2022 FEMA Strategic Plan and FEMA’s strategic imperatives: building a culture of preparedness, readying the nation for catastrophic disasters, and reducing the complexity of FEMA.
IPAWS
IPAWS is guided by its mission, laid out in the IPAWS Strategic Plan: Fiscal Year 2014-2018 to provide integrated services and capabilities to Federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local authorities that enable them to alert and warn their respective communities via multiple communications methods. Additionally, the IPAWS vision is to provide timely alert and warning to the American people in the preservation of life and property using the most effective means for delivering alerts that are available at any given time. To achieve its mission and realize its vision, the IPAWS PMO has five goals:
- Create, maintain and evolve an integrated interoperable environment for alert and warning
- Make alert and warning more effective
- Strengthen the resilience of IPAWS infrastructure
- Enhance the means for monitoring and measuring success
- Develop an IPAWS PMO workforce that is well-trained and satisfied
Legislative Government Partners
The IPAWS PMO is engaged with the Congressional committees that have legislative oversight of IPAWS. The IPAWS PMO provides periodic reports to these committees detailing updates on IPAWS implementation, and IPAWS PMO leadership engages with these committees to keep them informed of IPAWS developments. The IPAWS PMO has also conducted an interactive end-to-end IPAWS concept of operations demonstration for members of Congress and their staff at the United States Capitol Visitors Center.