The Government
Accountability Office, an independent investigative arm of Congress, is
getting a peek at the confidential data from cable operators, broadcasters and
others that the FCC collected as part of its test of the Emergency Alert
System.
The FCC promised that test performance info related to the
Nov. 9, 2011, test would be confidential and not released to the public, but
that apparently does not mean it can't be shared with GAO.
In a notice published Monday, the FCC's Homeland Security
Bureau said it had complied with a GAO request for the info, citing GAO's
investigation into what progress had been made in modernizing EAS, including a
review of the test results, which the FCC has now provided.
FCC rules state the FCC can be disclosed to other federal
agencies unless the commission has given explicit assurances that would not be
the case.
