To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to issue a report on the effectiveness of local outdoor siren systems, and for other purposes.

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9959 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 9959

   To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to issue a 
  report on the effectiveness of local outdoor siren systems, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 11, 2024

Ms. Davids of Kansas introduced the following bill; which was referred 
         to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to issue a 
  report on the effectiveness of local outdoor siren 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. EFFECTIVENESS OF LOCAL OUTDOOR SIREN SYSTEMS.

    (a) In General.--The Comptroller General of the United States shall 
conduct a study on the ability of local outdoor siren systems to 
effectively disseminate timely and relevant alerts during weather-
related emergencies in order to help communities better develop 
policies and procedures for emergency response and public safety.
    (b) Contents.--In conducting the study under subsection (a), the 
Comptroller General shall--
            (1) review a representative sample of States, counties, and 
        municipalities, including emergency managers, local officials, 
        and community groups;
            (2) evaluate the ability of local outdoor siren systems to 
        effectively disseminate alerts during weather-related 
        emergencies;
            (3) evaluate how such systems interact with other public 
        alert systems;
            (4) evaluate the age and condition of the infrastructure of 
        such systems;
            (5) evaluate the ability, financially and otherwise, of 
        each sample State, county, and municipality to replace such 
        systems as needed;
            (6) evaluate the efficacy of efforts by emergency 
        management divisions to improve the precision of such systems;
            (7) evaluate the efficacy of emergency management 
        divisions, both in and upon, switching to systems that activate 
        automatically upon the issuance of a relevant National Weather 
        Service warning;
            (8) evaluate the ability to connect such systems to the 
        Integrated Public Alert and Warning System of the Federal 
        Emergency Management Agency;
            (9) evaluate the impact that different activation standards 
        across the United States may have on the effectiveness of such 
        systems;
            (10) evaluate relevant cybersecurity protections for such 
        systems; and
            (11) evaluate whether improvements could be made to such 
        systems and relevant procedures.
    (c) Report.--Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 
Senate a report on the study conducted under subsection (a).
    (d) State Defined.--In this Act, the term ``State'' means each of 
the several States, the District of Columbia, each commonwealth, 
territory, or possession of the United States, and each federally 
recognized Indian Tribe.
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