6 U.S.C. § 124 — Homeland Security Advisory System

This section requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to run a national terrorism advisory system. (a) Requirement. The Secretary must administer the Homeland Security Advisory System under this section, providing advisories or warnings about the threat or risk of terrorism in the homeland to federal, state, local, and tribal government authorities, and to the American public, as appropriate. The Secretary is primarily responsible for issuing these advisories or warnings. (b) Required elements. In running the system, the Secretary must: (1) set criteria for when advisories or warnings are issued and revoked; (2) build a method, based on those criteria, for issuing and revoking them; (3) include in each advisory or warning specific, practical advice about protective measures and countermeasures people can take, detailed enough that individuals, government agencies, emergency responders, and the private sector can act appropriately; (4) limit each advisory or warning, whenever possible, to a specific region, place, or economic sector believed to be at risk; and (5) not rely only on color codes to communicate the threat level in any advisory or warning.