Congress orders study on how well emergency weather alerts actually work
H.R. 1076 — WARN Act · Filed by Nicholas Langworthy (R-NY) · 41 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the Government Accountability Office (Comptroller General) to study how well emergency alerting systems work during severe weather — examining which communication channels (sirens, social media, etc.) are most effective, whether emergency managers have adequate training to craft clear alerts, and what improvements could be made. The GAO must report findings to Congress within 18 months.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a directive to the GAO to conduct a study on emergency alerting systems. It is a straightforward information-gathering exercise with no regulatory, appropriations, or private-benefit components.
What the text implies
- Study findings may lead to future legislative or regulatory changes to emergency alert standards, but this bill itself imposes no such changes.
- The 18-month timeline means findings will inform policy discussions in late 2026–early 2027, potentially during a different legislative session.
- Study scope includes social media platforms as alert mediums, which may surface questions about private-sector coordination in emergency communications.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
A study on emergency alerting effectiveness serves the public interest by identifying gaps in how communities receive life-safety information during severe weather. Better-informed policy decisions on alert systems directly improve citizens' ability to respond to dangerous weather events. No restrictions on rights or protections are imposed.
Named in the bill
Comptroller General of the United States, Government Accountability Office (GAO), House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House Committee on Homeland Security, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Emergency managers, Local officials, Community groups
Where it stands
41 cosponsors: 29 Democrats, 12 Republicans.
- Feb 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $760,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 94 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Nicholas Langworthy, the sponsor, reported $1,046,611 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- AFL-CIO — $760,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,637 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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