National Terrorism Advisory System

[1][2] The NTAS is the replacement for the often-criticized, color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System introduced by the George W. Bush administration in 2002.

[1] Janet Napolitano said that the color-coded system often presented "little practical information" to the public and that the NTAS will provide alerts "specific to the threat" with "a specified end date.

After its announcement, Peter T. King, a Republican Representative from New York, said that the color-based assessments were useful at the time of their creation but that a more specific system was now needed.

[3][4] Mississippi Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson said that the color codes were often better at causing "Americans to be scared" rather than at telling citizens "the reason, how to proceed, or for how long to be on alert.

[9] On December 7, 2015, a day after an Address to the Nation by the President from the Oval Office,[10] a plan to add a new "intermediate" threat level to the NTAS was announced by DHS Secretary Johnson to reflect a "new phase" in the global terrorist threat against the homeland following the November 2015 Paris attacks and the 2015 San Bernardino attack.

[13] That includes providing government agencies and emergency officials with threat assessments as well as using news outlets and social networking resources to notify the public.