173593 “EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT”: The Federal-State Relationship in Disaster Response

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 12:30 PM

I. Michael Greenberger, JD , Center for Health and Homeland Security, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Arianne Spaccarelli, JD , Center for Health and Homeland Security, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Erin Hahn, JD, MPA , Center for Health and Homeland Security, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
  
Federal-state coordination is vital to avoiding the tragic mistakes of the Hurricane Katrina response effort.

Many in federal government and elsewhere have blamed the delayed and inadequate federal response in New Orleans on a perceived lack of legal authority to act without a formal request from Louisiana's governor. They have called for federalizing national response operations during public health catastrophes. State governors have vigorously opposed such steps as a violation of federalism.

A careful examination of the factual and legal background reveals that there should be little conflict between an effective federal response and states' rights. Federal emergency response plans set forth a structure for centralized and coordinated support to affected states that, if followed during Hurricane Katrina, would have resulted in prompt federal action, while upholding the principles of federalism and capitalizing on state and local officials' superior knowledge of their jurisdictions. The federal executive branch and Congress have advanced strong arguments that the federal government has the statutory and constitutional authority to respond to catastrophic disasters even without a formal request by a state. However, best practices in emergency management dictate that that authority only be used when coordination with the state and local officials is not possible. The federal government's challenge is to implement the emergency operations infrastructure established in theory in the National Response Framework in a way that ensures real time communications and responses by a federal government with the authority to deploy federal assistance to the states in a timely fashion.

Learning Objectives:
• Describe the history of federal responses to disasters and emergencies, including Hurricane Katrina • Describe the current statutory authority for federal response to disasters, including the authority to act without an affected state’s consent. • Describe the sources of constitutional authority for federal action during disasters, including the authority to act without an affected state’s consent. • Understand the constitutional and practical reasons that state officials retain control of response efforts whenever possible. • Understand the structure of federal response efforts and the federal-state relationship during disasters set forth in the National Response Plan and National Response Framework. • Recognize the circumstances under which unilateral federal response to emergencies is permissible and advisable.

Keywords: Disasters, Public Policy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: it is a subejct matter on which I work in my capacity as an academic
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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