FEMA and FCC Schedule 2026 Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System for November 17, 2026

English

Release Date September 16, 2026

Release Number HQ-26-137

Release Date:
September 16, 2026

WASHINGTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on Tuesday, November 17, 2026.

FEMA’s Emergency Alert System is a national public warning system made up of thousands of radio, television, cable, satellite and wireline video providers. Through the Emergency Alert System, the President can address the American people or share life-saving information with the public during a national emergency. FEMA is required by law to conduct a nationwide test of the public alert and warning system at least once every three years. These tests allow FEMA to identify technical or operational issues before the system is needed during an actual emergency.

FEMA and the FCC are sharing the test date in advance because it is important that the public understands what to expect on the day of the test. At approximately 2:20 p.m. ET on November 17, 2026, radio and television broadcasters, cable systems, satellite radio and television providers, and wireline video providers nationwide will interrupt normal programming to relay a test message. This message will state, “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 2:20 to 2:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.” When the test has concluded, normal programming will resume.

FEMA and the FCC are coordinating with stakeholders, including participating communications providers as well as federal, state, tribal and territorial agencies, to prepare for and conduct the test.

Last updated September 16, 2026

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FCC chair threatens ABC and Disney over Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk

By

Liam Reilly
1 hr 35 min ago

FCC chair Brendan Carr threatened to "take ...

The Federal Communications Commission’s Trump-aligned chairman on Wednesday threatened to “take action” against Disney and ABC over Jimmy Kimmel’s recent comments about Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer.

During his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel suggested Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. “The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

The ABC late-night host’s remarks constituted “the sickest conduct possible,” FCC chair Brendan Carr told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday. Carr suggested his FCC could move to revoke ABC affiliate licenses as a way to force Disney to punish Kimmel.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Carr added that the broadcasters, including ABC, “have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Carr attacked Kimmel as “talentless” and suggested the late-night comedian’s comments displayed “some sort of desperate irrelevance.” Disney and ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This was not the first time Carr has gone after ABC in recent months. In July, the Trump appointee told Fox News that long-running daytime talk show “The View” is “now in the crosshairs of this administration” over co-host Joy Behar’s scathing criticism of President Trump.

Kimmel has also been a frequent target of President Trump’s ire. Shortly after CBS announced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show — a move Carr publicly celebrated — Trump suggested that “Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel.”

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Trump Calls For 'Fake News' Networks To Have Licenses Revoked by FCC

Published Aug 25, 2025 at 3:45 AM EDT


U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called the ABC and NBC networks two of the "most biased" broadcasters ever and said the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should revoke their licenses.
Why It Matters

Trump's return to the White House this year has brought a revival of his adversarial relationship with the media.

As during his first stint in the White House—marked by repeated attacks on the "fake news" press—Trump's second term has featured similar run-ins with media institutions and practices.

Shortly after taking office, Trump implemented media changes affecting the White House press pool and access. He has frequently used the phrase "fake news" to dismiss unfavorable coverage and has been outspoken in his support for and criticism of specific outlets.

Trump's attacks have raised concerns among some in the industry who fear that access to truthful reporting will become increasingly difficult as credentials are revoked and outlets too favorable of the president may not provide full and impartial coverage.

Media outlets promote a healthy democracy by providing the public with fact-checked information, particularly on those in power, and offering essential context.

60 Minutes FCC Response: Unedited Video, Whitaker/Harris at the vice pre...

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FCC Chair Tom Wheeler speaks at The National Press Club - June 20, 2016

FCC Approves Net Neutrality

FCC approves new net neutrality rules
USA Today‎ - 3 hours ago
FCC approves net neutrality rules to assert more govt authority over the Internet & provide ...

Net Neutrality Begs A Big Legal Question: What Changed About The Internet?
Forbes‎ - 1 hour ago

FCC adopts historic Internet rules - Feb. 26, 2015
CNN Money‎ - 7 hours ago

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As Republicans Concede, F.C.C. Is Expected to Enforce Net Neutrality

By JONATHAN WEISMAN

FEB. 24, 2015

Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, conceded that Democrats are lining up with President Obama in favor of the F.C.C. position on net neutrality. 

Credit Jabin Botsford/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Last April, a dozen New York-based Internet companies gathered in the Flatiron Building boardroom of the social media website Tumblr to hear dire warnings that broadband providers were about to get the right to charge for the fastest speeds on the web.

The implication: If they didn’t pay up, they would be stuck in the slow lane.

What followed has been the longest, most sustained campaign of Internet activism in history, one that the little guys appear to have won. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote to regulate the Internet as a public good. On Tuesday, Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, all but surrendered on efforts to overturn the coming ruling, conceding Democrats are lining up with President Obama in favor of the F.C.C.

“We’re not going to get a signed bill that doesn’t have Democrats’ support,” he said, explaining that Democrats have insisted on waiting until after Thursday’s F.C.C. vote before even beginning to talk.

How Net Neutrality Works

Video by Natalia V. Osipova and Carrie Halperin on May 15, 2014.

The future of protecting an open Internet has been the subject of fierce debate, and potential changes to the rules by the Federal Communications Commission could affect your online experience.

“I told Democrats, Yes, you can wait until the 26th, but you’re going to lose the critical mass I think that’s necessary to come up with a legislative alternative once the F.C.C. acts,” he said.

In the battle over so-called net neutrality, a swarm of small players, from Tumblr to Etsy, BoingBoing to Reddit, has overwhelmed the giants of the tech world, Comcast, Verizon and TimeWarner Cable, with a new brand of corporate activism — New World versus Old. The biggest players on the Internet, Amazon and Google, have stayed in the background, while smaller players — some household names like Twitter and Netflix, others far more obscure, like Chess.com and Urban Dictionary — have mobilized a grass-roots crusade.

“We don’t have an army of lobbyists to deploy. We don’t have financial resources to throw around,” said Liba Rubenstein, Tumblr’s director of social impact and public policy. “What we do have is access to an incredibly engaged, incredibly passionate user base, and we can give folks the tools to respond.”

In mid-October, the technology activist group Fight for the Future acquired the direct phone numbers of about 30 F.C.C. officials, circumventing the F.C.C.’s switchboard to send calls directly to policy makers at the agency. That set off a torrent of more than 55,000 phone calls until the group turned off the spigot Dec. 3.

In November, President Obama cited “almost four million public comments” when he publicly pressured the F.C.C. to turn away from its paid “fast lane” proposal and embrace a new regulatory framework.

Since then, the lobbying has only grown more intense. Last week, 102 small Internet companies, including Yelp, Kickstarter and Meetup, wrote the F.C.C. to say the threat of Internet service providers “abusing their gatekeeper power to impose tolls and discriminate against competitive companies is the real threat to our future,” not “heavy-handed regulation” and possible taxation, as conservatives in Washington say.

On Feb. 5, the Mozilla Foundation, makers of the popular Firefox web browser, posted a pro-net neutrality banner just below its search window, proclaiming, “In just a few days, the web could change forever,” and imploring users to sign the firm’s petition; close to 300,000 have signed, said Dave Steer, Mozilla’s director for advocacy, who has helped mobilize Silicon Valley for Net Neutrality.

“This is not East Coast-West Coast thing. It’s not a for-profit company versus nonprofit thing. It’s all of us,” he proclaimed. “We came together under the banner of Team Internet.”

Republicans who had branded net neutrality “Obamacare for the Internet” have grown much quieter under the barrage.

“Tech companies would be better served to work with Congress on clear rules for the road. The thing that they’re buying into right now is a lot of legal uncertainty,” said Senator Thune, who warned that the F.C.C.’s new rule would face litigation from opponents and a possible reversal from a future, more Republican F.C.C. “I’m not sure exactly what their thinking is.

The cable and broadband companies that have fought the new regulations are even more dazed. Brian Dietz, a spokesman for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, said the pro-net neutrality activists have somehow turned a complex and technical debate over how best to keep the Internet operating most efficiently into a matter of religion. The forces for stronger regulation are for the Internet. Those opposed are against it.

Mr. Dietz said in no way were the Internet service providers trying to silence the Internet content companies. “They have a right to have an active voice in the public policy arena,” he said.

But, he said, the Internet companies in some case are misleading their customers, and in some cases, are being misled on the intricacies of the policy.

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Feds Hold Hearing On Whether They Should ‘Regulate’ Sites Like Drudge, Infowars And The Economic Collapse Blog

By Michael Snyder, on February 11th, 2015

The control freaks that run our government always seem to want to “regulate” things that they do not like. And so it should be no surprise that there is a renewed push to regulate independent news websites. Sites like the Drudge Report, Infowars.com and The Economic Collapse Blog have been a thorn in the side of the establishment for years. You see, the truth is that approximately 90 percent of all news and entertainment in this country is controlled by just six giant media corporations. That is why the news seems to be so similar no matter where you turn. But in recent years the alternative media has exploded in popularity. People are hungry for the truth, and an increasing number of Americans are waking up to the fact that they are not getting the truth from the corporate-controlled media. But as the alternative media has grown, it was only going to be a matter of time before the establishment started cracking down on it. At the moment it is just the FEC and the FCC, but surely this is just the beginning. Our “Big Brother” government ultimately wants to control every area of our lives – and this especially applies to our ability to communicate freely with one another.

The Federal Election Commission is an example of a federal rule making body that has gotten wildly out of control. Since just about anything that anyone says or does could potentially “influence an election”, it is not difficult for them to come up with excuses to regulate things that they do not like.

And on Wednesday, the FEC held a hearing on whether or not they should regulate political speech on blogs, websites and YouTube videos…

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is holding a hearing today to receive public feedback on whether it should create new rules regulating political speech, including political speech on the Internet that one commissioner warned could affect blogs, YouTube videos and even websites like the Drudge Report.

If you do not think that this could ever happen, you should consider what almost happened at the FEC last October…

In October, then FEC Vice Chairwoman Ann M. Ravel promised that she would renew a push to regulate online political speechfollowing a deadlocked commission vote that would have subjected political videos and blog posts to the reporting and disclosure requirements placed on political advertisers who broadcast on television. On Wednesday, she will begin to make good on that promise.

“Some of my colleagues seem to believe that the same political message that would require disclosure if run on television should be categorically exempt from the same requirements when placed in the Internet alone,” Ravel said in an October statement. “As a matter of policy, this simply does not make sense.”

“In the past, the Commission has specifically exempted certain types of Internet communications from campaign finance regulations,” she lamented. “In doing so, the Commission turned a blind eye to the Internet’s growing force in the political arena.”

As our nation continues to drift toward totalitarianism, it is only a matter of time before political speech on the Internet is regulated. It is already happening in other countries all around the globe, and control freak politicians such as Ravel will just keep pushing until they get what they want.

The way that they are spinning it this time around is that they desperately need to do something “about money in politics”…

Noting the 32,000 public comments that came into the FEC in advance of the hearing, Democratic Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub said, “75 percent thought that we need to do more about money in politics, particularly in the area of disclosure. And I think that’s something that we can’t ignore.”

And it isn’t just a few control freak Democrats that want these changes.

The Brennan Center for Justice, the Campaign Legal Center, the League of Women Voters and Public Citizen were all expected to testify in favor of more government regulation on the Internet at the hearing.

Fortunately, other organizations are doing what they can to warn the general population. For example, the following comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation…


Increased regulation of online speech is not only likely to chill participation in the public debate, but it may also threaten individual speakers’ privacy and right to post anonymously. In so doing, it may undermine two goals of campaign finance reform: protecting freedom of political speech and expanding political participation.

As we stated in our joint comments to the FEC back in 2005[pdf], “the Internet provides a counter-balance to the undue dominance that ‘big money’ has increasingly wielded over the political process in the past half-century.” We believe that heightened regulation of online political speech will hamper the Internet’s ability to level the playing field.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama and the FCC are using net neutrality as an excuse to impose lots of new regulations on Internet activity.

Ajit Pai is an FCC commissioner who is opposed to this plan. He recently sent out a tweet holding what he calls “President Obama’s 332-page plan to regulate the Internet“…

Ajit Pai’s description of “President Obama’s 332-page plan to regulate the Internet” sounds Orwellian. He tweeted a picture of himself holding the 332-page plan just below a picture of a smiling Barack Obama with a comment, “I wish the public could see what’s inside.” The implication depicted Obama as George Orwell’s “Big Brother.”

Pai also released a statement: “President Obama’s plan marks a monumental shift toward government control of the Internet. It gives the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works,” he said. “The plan explicitly opens the door to billions of dollars in new taxes on broadband… These new taxes will mean higher prices for consumers and more hidden fees that they have to pay.”

Here is the photo that he posted with his tweet…



After what we went through with Obamacare, one can only imagine what is inside that monstrosity of a document.

Regulation of the Internet is here, and it is only going to get worse.

But at least we are not like Saudi Arabia just yet. Recently, a Saudi blogger was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam“.

So we should be thankful for the freedoms that we still have. But without a doubt, governments all over the world are slowly but surely cracking down on Internet freedom.

If we do not stand up for our rights now, one day we may wake up and find that our freedom to communicate with one another over the Internet is totally gone.

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Don’t Panic! FCC To Shut Down All TV And Radio Next Wednesday

by Frances Martel | 10:54 am, November 5th, 2011

If your favorite TV show or radio program airs weekdays at 2 PM, the FCC has an important message for you. In order to test its new emergency alert system, the FCC has announced it is shutting down all communications on television and radio to test out its new Emergency Alert System on Wednesday, November 9th. While the system has been tested in various states previously, this will be the first all-inclusive, national test.

While the system will be tested nationally this weekend, it is also designed for state emergencies, according to the FCC, like AMBER alerts, but can also work in cases of national security emergencies. It has been designed as a joint venture by the FCC and FEMA. According to the FEMA website:

At the Federal Communications Commission’s June 9, 2011 Agenda meeting, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett, joined by representatives from FEMA and the National Weather Service, announced that the first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) would take place at 2:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time) on November 9, 2011. The purpose of the test is to assess the reliability and effectiveness of the EAS as a public alert mechanism. EAS Participants currently participate in state-level monthly tests and local-level weekly tests, but no top-down review of the entire system has ever been undertaken. The Commission, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will use the results of this nationwide test to assess the reliability and effectiveness of the EAS as a public alert mechanism, and will work together with EAS stakeholders to make improvements to the system as appropriate.

Besides these announcements, the FCC has released a fairly spooky PSA featuring Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC James Barnett, who reminds everyone to please not panic when they lose their television and radio for a few minutes on Wednesday. That ad, courtesy FCC, below:

Source: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/dont-panic-fcc-to-shut-down-all-tv-and-radio-next-wednesday-for-emergency-system-test/

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ONE MAN can shut off all broadcasting in the U.S.?

… Well, we’ll see about that on November 9. From Jim B. in a comment section, the feddies will try to take over all radio and television broadcasting at 2:00 p.m. EST on that date as a “test” of the system.

As one of the commentors on that article put it, this isn’t actually a test — which would be done at oh-dark-thirty. This is a demonstration. Of power. And fear.

Odd, too. The old Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), which has been around since the cold war, relied on the discretion of the broadcasters (which, granted, could be fallible). The upcoming shutdown is the first nationwide use of EBS’s successor, the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which is centralized. One man, the Big Boy himself, has the power to activate it, and he has delegated that power to the always-competent and of course democratically elected [/sarcasm] head of FEMA.

EAS has been around nearly 15 years — before many people were even aware of some newfangled thingie called the Internet. And they’re just getting around to “testing” itnow?

According to the FCC website:

The EAS is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers to provide the communications capability to the President to address the American public during a national emergency. The system also may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information, such as AMBER alerts and weather information targeted to specific areas.

… So the capital-P President needs to address every TV zombie and Limbaugh listener during a national emergency? Might we ask, “Whuffor?” This ain’t the day when Roosevelt comforted our grannies and grampies with his famous Fireside Chats. We are just a leeeetle bit smarter and more skeptical of power now. And the dangers we face today are no worse than we faced when the USSR and USSA held each other as nuclear hostages under the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction.

And if you want to see “fallible” on a grand, nationwide scale, just put something in the hands of FEMA. Yeah, that’ll work out real well.

So really, ya gotta wonder what they’re thinking.

And oh yeah … they forgot the Internet. Now shutting down that would be an interesting project …

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Senator Rockefeller and Congresswoman Jackson-Lee Have the Censorship Bug

by Seton Motley

Will someone please get West Virginia Democrat Senator Jay Rockefeller and Texas Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee some Zicam?

The afflicted Senator Rockefeller was chairing yesterday’s television retransmission hearings when his self-described “little bug” caused him to swerve off on a censorship tangent:

Senator Rockefeller: I hunger for quality news. I’m tired of the right and the left. There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC (Federal Communications Committee) to say to Fox and to MSNBC “Out. Off. End. Goodbye.” Would be a big favor to political discourse, our ability to do our work here in Congress and to the American people to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and more importantly in their future. We need slimmed down channel packages that better respect what we really want to watch.

So the Chairman of the relevant (Commerce, Science, and Transportation) Senate Committee has a “little bug” which causes him to wish to grant the FCC sweeping new powers – because they do not currently regulate cable television – that would then allow it to throw Fox News, MSNBC and whomever else the likes of Senator Censorship wishes off the air.

Clearly the Senator’s condition causes him to forget or forego the First Amendment.

I would imagine the Senator’s little bug was agitated by the November 2nd election results. Which is when the American people – with more media outlets from which to choose than ever before – made the uber-informed decision to throw his Party out of the majority in the House and diminish its majority in his Senate.

Let us now flashback to November 12, when Texas Democrat Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee exhibited symptoms of having an older variant strain of Senator Rockefeller’s little bug. Appearing on the MSNBC the Senator wishes to see removed from the airwaves, the Congresswoman and her host, Equine Ed Schultz, had the following exchange.

Equine Ed Schultz: How are we going to make any progress if there’s somebody out on all these radio stations across America who is allowed to basically get away with racist comments, never challenged on it, and it goes into the ears of impressionable people – low information voters – who say “Yeah, that’s the way the Democrats really are.” I mean, I don’t want to say “Should there be a law against this” BUT where’s the decency? There isn’t any.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX): That’s, you know, a very good question. As you well know, the Fairness Doctrine exists no more. It was interpreted that that was stifling the First Amendment. It might be worthy of a debate again. Because without the Fairness Doctrine, of course, there’s a wide latitude of the use of language that is provoking, provocative and insulting. You’re right.

Equine Ed Schultz: How about a decency law that says you can’t make racist comments on the air? I mean, there’s right and there’s wrong. We’re afraid to say what’s right and wrong anymore, what’s decent and indecent.

Ahh yes, that old chestnut the “Fairness” Doctrine. Which is like malaria; good and sensible people eradicated the disease, but do-gooder Leftists didn’t like the manner in which we did so – DDT and a return to First Amendment principles, respectively – so we are always in danger of a return of that particular little bug. (The continent of Africa could again use an infusion of both remedies.)

We certainly need to put a stop to our “wide latitude of the use of language,” eh Congresswoman and Senator? Too many channels, too much language – too much First Amendment free speech for our stricken representatives to take.

Again, I would dare say that the Congresswoman’s condition too was additionally agitated by the recent election. Being returned to the minority can’t be fun – best to seek eradication of a main reason for the results, rather than stand by and watch the electorate become informed against you.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we can rid ourselves of more of these little censorship bugs in 2012. The price of free speech is eternal vigilance, and of course biennial electoral inoculations.


Source: http://biggovernment.com/smotley/2010/11/18/senator-rockefeller-and-congresswoman-jackson-lee-have-the-censorship-bug/

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What Does the 'Wardrobe Malfunction' Ruling Ultimately Mean?

Wednesday, Jul 23

FBLA Exclusive: What Does the 'Wardrobe Malfunction' Ruling Ultimately Mean?

In light of all the news about the federal appeals court's decision to throw out the FFC's $550,000 fine against CBS over the infamous Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction," we talked to Paige Gold, who helped write the Media Access Project's friend-of-the-court brief in the case.

Gold tells us that what we kinda sorta thought -- but what many media outlets missed: The ruling alone isn't much of a setback for the FCC.

"The way broadcast indecency rules are interpreted shifts according to who is in the White House. The FCC has 5 members, 3 from the party holding the White House, and 2 from the other party. If Obama is elected in November, the balance will shift, Kevin Martin will no longer be in charge, and the big issue will not be indecency, but whether the FCC should have the right to regulate cable channels," Gold says.

In other words, if Obama loses, don't expect the FCC's crusades to end.

Posted by Mayrav 07:25 AM Idiot Box

Source: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlLA/idiot_box/fbla_exclusive_what_does_the_wardrobe_malfunction_ruling_ultimately_mean_89927.asp