President Bush has floated the idea of putting the military in charge of future big emergencies like Hurricane Katrina, an idea wisely opposed by a large number of governors and others.
USA Today reported that of 38 governors who responded to a survey, only two supported the suggestion.
Bush has called on Congress to consider a new law that would allow presidents to make the armed forces the primary emergency response agency. Some experts say the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, barring the military from domestic law enforcement duties unless there’s a threat to government authority, would have to be changed. (National Guard troops under the control of state governors aren’t covered by the act.)
The benefits and the limits of military help in disasters were summed up nicely by Alaska state emergency chief David Liebersbach, quoted in The Wall Street Journal: “When the military comes in to support civilian authorities they are terrific. But in my experience they have a problem when they try to run it because they’re not very used to working with civilian populations that have rights.”
Half the governors who responded to the survey opposed the idea. Eleven wanted more details, including Colorado Gov. Bill Owens.
“We saw in Katrina that an earlier response would have been appropriate,” said Owens’ spokesman, Dan Hopkins. “If additional federal oversight would mean that in the future some of those problems could be avoided, that obviously would be helpful. At the same time, you don’t want to take away from local authorities their local response, because they’re the ones who will have made the plans and should know how to activate them.”
The nation doesn’t need new laws to fix what went wrong after Katrina. The president already has wide powers to deploy troops and help state and local governments. What we need is a better understanding and better execution of disaster responsibilities by all levels of government. State and local officials know their states best and should be able to take charge of disasters.
One of the problems after Katrina was that no one took full charge. Lack of communication between layers of government also was at fault. The federal government already has one agency – the Federal Emergency Management Agency – that’s supposed to handle disasters. If it’s not working, it should be fixed, not replaced.
The military has a role to play in disaster relief, but it also has a bigger mission of national defense to focus on.
