FEMA Had Authority to Act, even without Emergency Declaration

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Lyon <jelyon () mac com>
Date: September 13, 2005 5:08:31 AM EDT
To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net>
Subject: [For IP] FEMA Had Authority to Act, even without Emergency  
Declaration


For IP, if appropriate. It's a transcript of the prologue from last
weekend's public radio program "This American Life." <http:// 
thislife.org>.

Ira Glass: OK,  in the coming weeks and months we're all going to be  
hearing
so much about hurricane Katrina, and why the government's response  
was so
abysmal. And already the blame shifting is like this prize fight that's
already in it's third or fourth round.

Already we've heard officials try to shrug off any attempts of
accountability by saying it's too soon, by saying we're not going to  
play
the "blame game."

And before the million details, and arguments and counter arguments  
start to
make all of our heads woozy, I would just like to repeat here, something
that was talked about very briefly this week.

One of those things that seems so fundamental, that seems to cut  
through a
lot this supposed debate that's happening and end it definitively. So  
much
so that when I would see people on TV posturing and trotting out the  
talking
points, I kept wanting to go back and say "Nonononono, don't forget this
thing."

It has to do with the biggest argument out there right now.

Whether the federal government was in fact supposed to be in charge of
rescuing people and getting food and water and all that to New  
Orleans. It's
come up a lot, like when the head of Homeland Security Michael  
Chertoff was
asked by Tim Russert on Meet the Press, "Since you knew the storm was
coming, why didn't you get buses and trains and planes and trucks in  
there
to evacuate?"

Chertoff...said it wasn't his job.

Chertoff: Tim, the the way that, that that emergency operations act  
under,
under the law is, the responsibility, and the, the uh power, the  
authority
rests with the state and local officials.

Glass: This idea, that it was state and local officials who were the  
ones
who blew it, not the feds, this idea is all over place.

From the talking heads on TV, to Rush Limbaugh:

Limbaugh: What we had down there was eminent failure of state and local
government. We had incompetence in the mayor's office, incompetence  
in the
governor's office.

Glass: And sure, it is clear, even this early, that there are plenty of
things that state and local government did to screw things up.

But here's this thing that I read this week, this thing that I kept  
thinking
about all week. It really comes down to a couple of basic facts.

The governor of Louisiana declares a state of emergency, the Friday  
before
the storm hits, right? Calls on the federal government to step in.

Then President Bush officially declares a state of emergency in  
Louisiana,
the next day, Saturday before the storm, and authorizes the Federal
Emergency Management Agency to act.

You can read the paper where he does this on the White House website.

Basically, that should have settled who was in charge.

Nicholson: After that happened, there was plenty of authority. There  
was all
the authority in the world.

Glass: We checked it out this idea that, from that point, the federal
government was in fact in charge. We checked it out with several  
different
experts and consultants on these issues this week.

And they all agree that the law is unambiguous.

This particular guy is William Nicholson, author of the books "Emergency
Response and Emergency Management Law" and "Homeland Security Law and
Policy." And if you're into Homeland Security policy, you might want to
check those out.

He says that once the governor asks for help, and the president  
declares a
state of emergency, the feds basically have the broad powers to do  
what's
necessary.

And, he says, even if the President hadn't declared a state of  
emergency,
the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Chertoff, could have  
acted.

There's this whole newfangled way for him to take emergency powers under
something called the National Response Plan.

Nicholson: Well, basically, the way it works is, the Secretary of  
Homeland
security designates this as a catastrophic incident, and federal  
resources
deploy to preset federal locations or staging areas, and, so they  
don't even
have to have a local or state declaration in order to, uh, move  
forward with
this.

Glass: In other words, it doesn't matter what the governor says, it  
doesn't
matter what the local people say, basically, once that happens, they can
just go ahead and do, what needs to be done to fix the problem.

Nicholson: That's correct. It's utterly clear that they had the  
authority to
preposition assets and to significantly accelerate the federal response.

Glass: And they didn't need to wait for the state?

Nicholson: They did *not* need to wait for the state.

Glass: Remember, you heard it here first.

Remember you heard it at all.
--
John Lyon | http://surlyedition.com

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame
What the river has done to this poor crackers land."
  -- Randy Newman, "Louisiana, 1927"




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