§195d Social Media Working Group

Summary

The Secretary must set up a social media working group inside the Department. The Group’s job is to find and share guidance and best practices for using social media before, during, and after natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other man-made disasters. The Group will include experts from Federal, State, local, tribal, territorial, and nonprofit organizations, and named agencies like FEMA, the American Red Cross, CDC, NOAA, USGS, the Forest Service, the Department’s Public Affairs, Chief Information, and Privacy offices. The Secretary or a designee will chair the Group, and a State or local member will serve as co-chair on a rotating basis. The chairperson will also add extra members so that the number of added members is at least equal to the regular members and must include at least 3 private-sector representatives plus people from law enforcement, fire services, emergency management, public health, universities, and nonprofit disaster relief groups. The chair will set term limits. The Group must work with public and private partners when possible. The Group must meet first not later than 90 days after November 5, 2015, and then at the chair’s call but at least twice each year; meetings can be held virtually. Each year the Group meets it must send a report to the appropriate congressional committees reviewing current and new social media tools, lessons learned, training, coordination with the private sector, and recommendations to improve Department use and public awareness. The Group ends 5 years after November 5, 2015, unless the chair sends a written certification to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House to renew it for another 5-year period; it may be renewed this way repeatedly.