FEMA Faces Congressional Heat To Release Emergency Warning Grants To Public Broadcasters.

After a federal court last month refused to order the Federal Emergency Management Agency to release funding to Corporation for Public Broadcasting to implement and operate the Next Generation Warning System program, there is a new bipartisan push from Congress to have the money released.

Sens. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have sent a letter to FEMA Acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton urging the agency to lift a freeze on grants that is said to have been in place since February. FEMA has refused to process reimbursements to local stations, which the lawmakers say is depriving stations of promised payments and delaying critical modernization work.

“This freeze can have serious consequences for the public,” Markey and Murkowski write. “Public broadcasters — who have already spent money to upgrade their infrastructure — may face financial challenges without promised reimbursements. They may have to delay or cancel projects intended to make their stations more resilient, potentially preventing them from communicating emergency alerts to the public when the next hurricane, wildfire, or winter storm strikes. To put it simply: this funding freeze is unnecessarily threatening public safety.”

FEMA has in the past turned to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to administer the Next Generation Warning System program. The grant program provides funding for local public radio and television stations to upgrade equipment and receive training to enhance alerting and warning capabilities and prioritizes public media stations.

The senators note that many public broadcasters are designated as Primary Entry Point stations by FEMA, meaning they are the first to receive and disseminate national alerts which they then pass on to other broadcasters and cable systems. “In an era of fragmented media, the reliability, trustworthiness, and broad accessibility of public broadcasters make them indispensable to the nation’s emergency preparedness and public safety,” Markey and Murkowski write.

Congress has already appropriated the money to FEMA, and in the first round of funding, CPB awarded grants to 42 entities in 23 states for nearly $19 million — including nearly $1.5 million for Alaska stations, over $2 million for Louisiana stations, and nearly $1.7 million for Tennessee stations. In each case, stations sign grant agreements with CPB, spend money to upgrade their infrastructure in line with those agreements, and then seek reimbursement from FEMA through CPB. Since Feb. 19, however, FEMA has shut off access to the payment system that processes those reimbursements, freezing more than $1.88 million in grant reimbursements.

CPB filed suit last month, alleging the funding was being unlawfully held up. But U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly denied the request and ruled that the CPB failed to carry its legal burden for showing how it had been irreparably harmed.

FEMA earlier denied in court that it was holding up the funding. Instead, it said the agency has modified its process for the review of payment requests, a process that it said is “consistent with its authority to protect the public and ensure grant programs are free from waste, fraud and abuse.”

But that explanation comes up short to Markey and Murkowski. In addition to turning the funding back on, they want FEMA to provide a more detailed explanation by April 29 for why it has frozen the NGWS grants—and provide a timeline for lifting the freeze.

“With hurricane season rapidly approaching, we urge to you unfreeze these payments and ensure that public broadcasters have the resources to serve their communities during emergencies,” the senators write.