OLYMPIA, WA— Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has joined 18 other attorneys general and the City of New York in calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to immediately publish a rule expanding the number of languages used in government emergency alerts sent to mobile phones.

The rule, which the FCC unanimously adopted in January 2025, would extend Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) to include 13 additional languages, among them American Sign Language (ASL). WEAs are brief, text-like messages sent through cell carriers to notify the public of imminent threats such as severe weather, missing persons, or other emergencies.

In a letter to the FCC, the coalition expressed concern that the commission’s ten-month delay in publishing the rule has stalled efforts to make critical alerts accessible to non-English speakers. The attorneys general warned that if the rule is not published within 30 days, they are prepared to take legal action to compel the FCC’s compliance.

The FCC’s Multilingual Alerts Order requires wireless carriers to implement pre-translated alert templates in multiple languages once the rule appears in the Federal Register. The carriers would have 30 months from that publication date to upgrade their systems.

Brown and other attorneys general argue that the delay violates federal law, as both the Administrative Procedure Act and the FCC’s own regulations require publication of adopted rules. The coalition emphasized that the obligation remains in effect even during the current federal government shutdown.

The demand letter was led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and signed by officials from Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, along with New York City’s Corporation Counsel.

For more information about the Washington Attorney General’s Office and its public safety initiatives, visit www.atg.wa.gov.