Sponsors (10)
The bill improves public safety by giving coastal residents timely shark-risk alerts but increases the risk of alert fatigue and adds operational burdens for local emergency managers and regulators.
Coastal residents and beachgoers would receive timely, official shark-risk warnings via the Wireless Emergency Alert system, allowing them to avoid affected beaches and reduce the risk of injury.
People in alerted areas (coastal communities and beachgoers) and the general public could become desensitized if alerts become more frequent, reducing overall trust and effectiveness of emergency warnings.
Local emergency managers and the FCC would face extra operational burdens to evaluate, authorize, and send more frequent shark alerts, creating costs and diverting staff time from other duties.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the FCC, within 180 days of enactment, to designate "shark attack" as an event eligible for Wireless Emergency Alerts.
Designates a shark attack as an event that may trigger Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). It directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue an order within 180 days of enactment to add "shark attack" to the list of event types eligible for WEA messages as defined in existing rules.
Introduced March 12, 2025 by Katie Boyd Britt · Last progress June 26, 2026