Justification for Non-Substantive Change Request

Justification for Non-Substantive Changes to Wireless Emergency Alert Collection

OMB Control No. 3060-1113

The Commission is requesting approval of non-substantive changes associated with multilingual Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) in collection OMB Control No. 3060-1113.  OMB previously approved FCC rules that require commercial mobile service providers participating in WEA to support the pre-installation and display of templates of common alert messages on WEA-capable devices in the 13 most commonly spoken languages, as well as English and American Sign Language (ASL). On January 8, 2025, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau adopted a Report and Order that further implemented these requirements by identifying the specific templates that these CMS providers must implement, requiring the written templates to be fillable with specific information provided by alert originators, and requiring non-English templates displayed on WEA-capable devices to be followed by the display of corresponding English fillable templates. The required templates for written languages can be found at https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/FillableAlertTemplates-WEA-MultilingualOrder.pdf. The required templates for American Sign Language can be found at https://www.fcc.gov/wireless-emergency-alert-templates-american-sign-language-asl. By adopting these implementation parameters, the FCC advances the availability of WEA for persons with limited English proficiency and promotes the flexibility and effectiveness of the templates. Together, these steps further the FCC’s goal of ensuring that WEA remains an essential and effective public safety tool that allows alert originators to warn their communities of danger and advise them to take protective action.

The update of this collection to include the new implementation parameters for templates falls within the scope of the existing OMB approval of this collection. These updates will cause no change in the burden estimates or overall reporting and record keeping requirements that the Commission submitted (and which OMB subsequently approved) in 2024.