Any city, county or state can participate in a program that lets them send these alerts, but it doesn't make them experts, Schatz said in Congressional testimony at a hearing about the failure. So he proposed legislation with several other senators that would put the responsibility solely with the federal government.

"States are the laboratories for democracy, they should not be the laboratory for missile alerts," Schatz said. "A missile attack is federal. A missile attack is not a local responsibility. Confirmation and notification of something like a missile attack should reside with the agency that knows first and knows for sure. In other words, the people who know should be the people who tell us."

Specifically, the DoD and DHS should have the authority to send alerts, Schatz concluded. Also at the hearing, an FCC official described the agency's investigation, which faulted inefficient safeguards and process controls for the false alert. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency is currently working to add safeguards to prevent such a mistake from happening again by requiring two people to confirm a live alert before it goes off, according to CNET.