By George Winslow – 07/08/25
Reps. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) and 24 other House members have signed on to a letter asking the Federal Communications Commission to include language-access experts in its Hurricane Season Resiliency Roundtable this week.
The letter comes as the FCC is under mounting pressure to provide better emergency alerts in multiple languages. In 2023, the FCC voted to require wireless emergency alerts be sent in 13 languages as well as American Sign Language, but it has since been criticized for delaying implementation.
The most recent letter, signed July 6 by 27 members of Congress, urged FCC Chair Brendan Carr, a Republican, and Acting Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief Zenji Nakazawa to prioritize multilingual, culturally competent emergency communications and to embed language accessibility into every phase of disaster preparedness and response.
“Nearly 68 million United States residents speak a language other than English at home, and over 25 million are classified as LEP,” the lawmakers wrote. “During hurricanes and other disasters, these individuals face significant, documented barriers to accessing emergency alerts, evacuation orders and disaster recovery information in a language that they can understand.
“As the FCC convenes its Hurricane Season Resiliency Roundtable, it has an opportunity to address longstanding gaps in language accessibility during disasters,” the House members continued. “To improve access to lifesaving information and support economic resilience, the FCC should prioritize making public safety communications — including Wireless Emergency Alerts, Emergency Alert System messages broadcast over television and radio, and 911 accessibility standards — multilingual, culturally competent and accessible to all.”
In response to the letter and the ongoing flooding emergency in Texas that has upwards of 100 people, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, once again reiterated her support for rules requiring operators to send alerts in multiple languages.
Earlier, in late May, TTV Tech reported that Barragán joined Gomez and Carson (Calif.) Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes to demand that Carr immediately publish the implementation requirements for the FCC’s multilingual Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) rule in the Federal Register — a necessary step to activate a life-saving policy unanimously approved by the agency in October 2023.