Last month during a House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee markup hearing, H.R. 4263, also known as the Social Media Working Group Act of 2014, was voted out of Committee to the entire House of Representatives for consideration. This bill, sponsored by Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN), amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and legislates the existence of the Virtual Social Media Working Group. The bill has been added to the House's floor schedule for the afternoon of July 8, 2014. G&H International has supported the VSMWG since it was established in December 2010. Since then, the group has published five documents on using social media for emergency response, including the Social Media Strategy, Next Steps: Social Media for Emergency Response, Community Engagement and Social Media Best Practices, and Lessons Learned: Hurricane Sandy and Social Media. Its most recent publication, Using Social Media for Enhanced Situational Awareness and Decision Support, addresses ways to use social media platforms for situational awareness, challenges, and integration of social media into the operational environment.

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