Suchergebnisse

The COVID-19 pandemic challenges a workable American federalism. The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reserves plenary responsibilities to states for promoting health and well-being; but states and their local governments suffer from a significant lack of resources and interjurisdictional competition during major emergencies. In this article, I argue that a president has significant constitutional and statutory authority for pandemic preparedness and, by law, is responsible for leading a coordinated national response necessary to a pandemic. The article outlines the constitutional and statutory authorities available to President Trump and assesses how he used those powers to address the pandemic. It is argued that early, decisive national coordinative systems for containing and mitigating the virus; testing, tracing, contacting, and isolation protocols; data collection standardization; procurement and distribution of supplies; and planning vaccine eligibility and distribution could have reduced the state and local government disadvantages early in the pandemic, saving lives and boosting the economy.

Devastating hurricanes in 2017 in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, and the recent landfall of Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas show that flood events are likely to affect the US with far greater frequency in the near future. Beverly A. Cigler takes a close look at why floods have become so much worse in recent years and what we can do to make them less costly both in terms of lives lost and resources. She argues that in addition to promoting green measures, rather than pulling back from flood mitigation as the Trump administration has proposed, the US government needs to do more to help the states to reduce flood hazards as well as promoting measures such as the National Flood Insurance Program.

Floods are the costliest natural hazard events in the United States in terms of lives and property losses. The financial costs of flood disasters are unsustainable, especially for the national government, which assumes the most costs while state and local governments have the greatest ability to avoid great losses due to their influence over land use, economic policy, and other areas that can help mitigate floods and reduce the high costs of relief and recovery. This article summarizes the types, causes, and occurrence of floods in the United States and their unsustainable economic and social costs. It explains that the growing burden to taxpayers from disaster response and recovery has resulted in increased interest by national decision makers in shifting more disaster responsibilities and costs to state and local governments. The article reviews the broad tool kit of mitigation strategies available to local governments and their residents in taking greater responsibility for the impacts of flood events.

A wide range of organizational, intergovernmental, and operational EM issues face the incoming president and his team. Adapted from the source document.