§195d Social Media Working Group

Summary

Create a social media working group inside the Department to help share information by social media and to improve how social media is used before, during, and after natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other man-made disasters. The Secretary, or a designee, will chair the group and pick a rotating state or local member as co-chair. Members include experts from federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and nongovernmental groups — for example, the Department’s public affairs, IT, and privacy offices; FEMA and its Office of Disability Integration and Coordination; the American Red Cross; the Forest Service; CDC; USGS; and NOAA. The chair will also appoint at least as many additional members as the regular members, including at least 3 private-sector representatives and people from law enforcement, fire services, emergency management, public health, universities, and nonprofit disaster-relief groups. The chair sets term limits for those appointees. The group must hold its first meeting within 90 days after November 5, 2015, and then meet when the chair calls it and at least twice each year; meetings can be virtual. Each year the group must send a report to Congress that reviews current and new social media tools, lessons learned from recent responses, available training, coordination with the private sector on legal/technical/privacy/security issues, and recommendations to improve Department use of social media and public access to information. The group ends 5 years after November 5, 2015 unless the chair renews it for another 5-year term by certifying the need to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Homeland Security; the chair may renew it again the same way.