Virginia's Governor and the Constitutional Authority of Congress

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.)

President Barack Obama is making a campaign swing through Virginia next week, an acknowledgment that, although Virginia has only voted once for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, it has the potential to do so again in 2012.  (In 1964, Virginia voted for Democrat Lyndon Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater; in 2008, the Old Dominion chose Illinois Senator Barack Obama over Arizona Senator John McCain.  GOP candidates won Virginia in all the intervening elections.)  As the 2012 presidential campaign is well underway, even with the GOP nominee still unknown, the President's need to keep Virginia in his Electoral College "win" column is quite keen.

The White House has not released precise details but it looks like the President will make at least four stops, in Charlottesville, Danville, Fredericksburg, and Newport News.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has requested that Obama add a fifth stop to his tour of Virginia:  earthquake-damaged Louisa County, where the town of Mineral was the epicenter of a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that was felt up and down the East Coast and as far west as Chicago and St. Louis on August 23.

In a letter released by McDonnell's office, the Governor makes his case to the President, noting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has denied his request for assistance to property owners to pay for damages to their homes and businesses:

I am inviting you to join me in visiting Louisa County during your tour of the Commonwealth next week. This additional stop in your previously scheduled tour will provide you the opportunity to meet the citizens who were at the epicenter of this significant seismic event, and witness the impact of the earthquake and more than 40 aftershocks on the homes and businesses in this area. It would benefit your administration to understand the devastation brought on by this historic earthquake, and to sec how the community’s recovery will be hindered as a result of FEMA’s denial of important emergency relief funds.

In his letter, at the top of page two, the Governor goes on to make a puzzling and unsubstantiated claim (italics added):

Disaster relief and public safety are core functions of the federal government. Volunteer groups are ill-equipped to repair earthquake damage. And, while state and local officials are doing everything they can, federal assistance is necessary in ensuring that affected Virginians are able to repair their homes to a safe condition and get back on their feet again.

That italicized phrase also appeared in a news release from the Governor's office dated October 7. It stuck in my craw a bit but I let it go as illustrative of the poetic license one associates with public relations efforts.

Never having seen any part of the U.S. Constitution that addresses either "disaster relief" or "public safety," I sent a query to the Governor's press secretary, asking, "Can the Governor's office provide a citation of the section (or sections) of the U.S. Constitution in which either 'disaster relief' or 'public safety' are found?"

As of 10:23 p.m., I have not received a reply.

While waiting, I took another look at the famous story ("Not Yours to Give") about Tennessee Congressman David Crockett, who told his colleagues once about his encounter with a constituent, Horatio Bunce, something of a backwoods sage.

Bunce had objected to Crockett's vote to appropriate funds for the relief of victims of a fire in Georgetown, D.C., and said to the Congressman:

The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.

Among those things not delegated to Congress is the authority to engage in charity using taxpayers' money, no matter how noble the cause. That authority is missing from Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, which specifies the few and defined powers of the national legislature.

"Disaster relief" is not among them, and "public safety" (aside from the raising of armies and navies to protect against foreign enemies) is reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment.

Certainly Governor McDonnell, as an educated man and a lawyer, knows this.

By the way, country singer Alan Jackson is giving a free concert in Mineral to give a moral and material boost those directly harmed by the August earthquake.  His efforts to help the town are, in fact, his to give.

The question is, who would draw a bigger crowd in Louisa County:  Barack Obama or Alan Jackson?

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Katrina: One Year Later

The past couple of days have seen a burst of commentary and reportage on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

In the Washington Post business section, for instance, one article looked at how Katrina has affected insurance providers and buyers of insurance policies:

Struggles ... are going on across the Gulf Coast, where more than a million policyholders have turned to their insurers for payment on homeowner's, commercial and other insurance claims. Battles over claims have clogged state and federal courts here and spilled into state legislatures.

Reeling from the scale of the disaster, most carriers have stopped writing new policies along the Gulf of Mexico, forcing policyholders into state-backed insurers of last resort. Earlier this summer, Allstate Insurance Co. of Northbrook, Ill., tried to renounce wind and hail coverage on 30,000 existing policies in Louisiana, a move it is reconsidering after the state insurance commissioner threatened legal action. Rates, meanwhile, are soaring. In Mississippi, the state-backed insurer of last resort asked this year for rate increases of nearly 400 percent, an amount that Insurance Commissioner George Dale cut to 90 percent.

Another article in the Post's national news section reported on the solemn commemoration of the hurricane's victims, attended by President Bush and other dignitaries in New Orleans:

Church bells pealed at 9:38 a.m. here Tuesday, the moment floodwaters breached the city's levees a year ago, as the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina cast a funereal pall over this half-empty city.

On his 13th trip to the Gulf Coast since the storm, President Bush joined residents in commemorating the losses with a particularly New Orleans flavor. Local dignitaries, emergency workers and politicians wended their way from the Convention Center to the Louisiana Superdome in a traditional jazz funeral procession, while during a remembrance Mass attended by Bush at the St. Louis Cathedral a clarinetist poured out a soulful version of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee."

The Washington Times, meanwhile, pointed out how the names given to tropical storms have changed in recent years, reflecting more acceptance of the ethnic and linguistic diversity North America, Central America, and the Caribbean:

Ernesto will have a little ethnic company in upcoming years. Humberto, Pablo and Cristobal are on future name rosters for hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic -- not to mention Chantal, Nana, Gaston, Omar and Henri.

"Over the years, the names started out primarily Anglo-Saxon for Atlantic hurricanes. Now they reflect the diversity of the affected regions, with names originating from English, Spanish, French and Dutch, primarily," said Frank Lepore, spokesman for the Florida-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) yesterday.

Roughly a quarter of the 21 official names, which are assigned when weather patterns become tropical storms, have some international underpinnings. The practice has been in place since 1977, when a new "naming protocol" went into operation, Mr. Lepore said. Male names were alternated with female names, and the roster was tweaked to acknowledge other countries.

When Katrina hit last year, I posted three articles related to the story that was dominating headlines and airwaves:

"On the Radio" (September 8) reported how ShipCom, an Alabama-based radio service, had provided emergency frequencies to the Coast Guard and other agencies in the aftermath of the hurricane.

"Pearl of Africa" (also September 8) noted how foreign countries that usually receive U.S. economic and humanitarian assistance were coming to the aid of affected regions along the Gulf Coast. It referred back to Gordon Sinclair's famous radio commentary from the early 1970s, "The Americans: A Canadian's Opinion" for its prescience.

"Everything Old Is New Again" (September 23) allowed me to reach back into my experience as an advocate for civil defense and emergency management in the 1980s to point out that complaints about FEMA's competence are neither recent nor unique.

I will let others comment on what has happened in the intervening 12 months since Katrina made landfall and the levees broke. I invite you, the reader, to take a look at what I wrote last year. Comments, as always, are welcome.

Everything Old Is New Again

With the approach of Hurricane Rita toward the Texas Gulf Coast, it should come as no surprise that we are still talking about Hurricane Katrina and its vast effects along the Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana coasts -- and especially what Katrina did to the city of New Orleans.

More precisely, Topic A is the government's response to Katrina, and whether the Bush administration did all at could in terms of relief and recovery. Others might ask whether the Bush administration, especially the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was simply incompetent or actually malevolent.

In that context, I found a piece called "FEMA: Everything Old Is New Again," in the September 20 issue of "What We Now Know" (WWNK), a weekly trend letter from Casey Research. I recommend this article -- and not just because it quotes some of my long-ago congressional testimony -- and reprint it here with permission of Casey Research.

FEMA: Everything Old Is New Again

Consider the following:

“FEMA has been accused of being a ‘political dumping ground filled by the Bush administration with inexperienced appointees who [have] mismanaged the agency, misled Congress, and funneled contracts to their friends,’ to quote the Washington Post.

“... the question of what to do about FEMA will remain. Recent major disasters caused by [hurricanes] have raised much criticism of the performance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In a Post interview, Stickney admitted that FEMA’s performance ‘fell below public expectations’ but he argued that the agency acted as swiftly as it could given its limited powers. This ‘limited powers’ argument stems from the wording of the Disaster Relief Act in which the Federal Government steps in only after a State Governor declares that the effects of the disaster are beyond the capacity of the State to cope and requests Federal assistance....

“What will [the President] do about FEMA? Don’t expect anything to happen in a hurry.... A likely move is to appoint a caretaker and establish a committee to study the problem for a year.”

What did you just read? Were these excerpts from an editorial in the New York Times? A scathing fundraising letter from the Democratic National Committee? A Government Accountability Office report?

Actually, those comments come from an article written by former emergency management official Jerry Strope and published in a 1993 issue of the Journal of Civil Defense. The “hurricanes” mentioned were Andrew and Iniki, and “Stickney” was Wallace Stickney, the outgoing FEMA director at the end of the first Bush administration. The "President" was the about-to-be-inaugurated Bill Clinton.

As the song goes, "everything old is new again."

Criticism of the federal disaster response agency is anything but new. A December 1989 article, also in the Journal of Civil Defense, noted that, after Hurricane Hugo hit the Atlantic coast, “One irate editorial castigated FEMA for not sending out promptly federal teams to help restore power to communities in South Carolina. FEMA has no such teams and the electric power companies have a well-organized mutual aid capability. Senator [Ernest] Hollings called the agency ‘a bunch of bureaucratic jackasses.’”

That last comment contains a hint that deserves further attention, the important yet underrated role of the private sector in disaster mitigation—in this case, how private electrical utilities have extensive disaster response plans that cross state lines and permit cooperation even among companies that normally might be seen as competitors. But that’s not the sole example.

In recent days, we have seen the same sort of response from the private sector, not just non-profits like the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and Catholic Charities, but even profit-making companies like Wal-Mart. (The White House has compiled a list of private contributions totaling more than $516 million.) Their examples demonstrate, by contrast, that the private sector is more flexible, more responsive, and less hidebound than government bureaucracy.

Public-choice economics teaches us that government bureaucrats have nothing to lose by standing still and everything to lose by taking risks (that is, making choices). New Orleans Times-Picayune editor Jim Amoss put it succinctly in a radio interview: Preparing effectively for disasters, he said, “requires a nimble bureaucracy, and I have yet to encounter a nimble bureaucracy.” In contrast, private businesses—and non-profit organizations—can turn on a dime, if necessary.

Interviewed on National Public Radio, the mayor of Kenner, Louisiana, said:

“FEMA couldn't get here. Red Cross couldn't get here. Homeland Security couldn't get here. The only one who could get here was the Wal-Mart Corporation. We were—we are—extremely appreciative and extremely grateful for them, and we'd certainly suggest that maybe some of those other folks go over and meet with the Wal-Mart people so that they can learn distribution and logistics.”

Wal-Mart had trucked in hundreds of trailers filled with water and ice (some of which, upon entering New Orleans, were reportedly turned back by FEMA personnel). The company’s emergency response coordinator, Jason Jackson, told NPR that his crew had been prepared more than three months ago in anticipation of hurricane season:

"We had already, for instance, staged over 160 trailer loads of water in a number of different distribution centers throughout Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas because we knew that they would be needed.”

And despite getting the most publicity, Wal-Mart has only contributed $3 million in cash and goods so far—but that doesn't include the company's decades-long investment in logistics and inventory control that made its prompt response possible.

If FEMA never learns from its experience, perhaps it is time to move in a different direction—one relying more heavily on the private sector and expecting less from the federal government.

Let’s remember that planning for disaster response is primarily a local activity. There is not much need for a central role to be played by the federal government, even in terms of funding. It makes much more sense for local authorities in Miami to make contingency plans for hurricanes, or for authorities in the Missouri River basin to prepare for spring floods, or for Buffalo to get ready for blizzards. Contributions to these efforts by bureaucrats in far-away Washington are limited.

It is but a short step from here to suggest that disaster planning—particularly in regard to locally contained natural or manmade disasters—can be performed mostly by the private sector. In many ways, this is already done. Architects and engineers who build homes and office towers in earthquake zones already take into account ways to quake-proof their structures. Mormon families, in keeping with their religious tradition, stockpile at least a year's worth of provisions—in part a reaction to their community’s collective memory of the hardships in the early years of frontier life. And despite their eccentric reputations, “survivalist” groups offer inexpensive, practical suggestions for preparing households for temporary or long-term crises.

Given the manifest, systemic weaknesses of the federal government in this arena, market forces must more fully come into play. First, individuals, families, and businesses will have to judge the probability of potential disasters that might affect them. Second, they will weigh the costs of preparing for disasters against the opportunity costs of not preparing.

Those who believe that planning and preparations are a worthwhile investment will seek out or establish institutions that can aid them in that endeavor, either profit-making businesses (such as firms that make easy-to-store provisions) or non-profit entities (like the Red Cross or the American Civil Defense Association). Insurance companies should offer special disaster policies to those with good plans; underwrite voluntary, community-based efforts to prevent disaster; and explore efficient yet humane ways to deal with disasters after they occur.

In congressional testimony over two decades ago, Richard Sincere of the American Civil Defense Association said: "With its extraordinary natural and economic resources, the United States does not need dictatorial control to protect its people. The interstate highway system, the number of automotive vehicles, wide areas of open, rural land, a strong economy—all these could contribute to effective civil defense. The natural freedom and mobility of the American people, their democratic spirit, their respect for law and order, their many skills and talents—these are assets without equal in the modern world."

All this remains true today. Despite the anomalous behavior of some people in New Orleans after Katrina, expectations that Americans respond well in the face of disaster have not diminished. Human and economic resources may still be applied in times of crisis without the heavy hand of government controlling them.

This article originally appeared in the weekly e-letter, What We Now Know (WWNK) -- published by, and used here with permission from, Casey Research, LLC. Click here to sign up for a FREE subscription to WWNK, or check out past editions in the WWNK archives at www.caseyresearch.com.

On the Radio

One of my clients has been instrumental in keeping emergency communications on the air in the territory affected by Hurricane Katrina. ShipCom LLC, which normally provides ship-to-shore radio communications to pleasure craft and other boats and ships traveling in and near U.S. waters, diverted most of its telecom capacity toward assisting the Coast Guard in search and rescue operations during and after last week's hurricane.

ShipCom issued this news release this morning:

ShipCom Assists Coast Guard in Emergency Communications, Rescue Operations

(Mobile, Ala.) — ShipCom LLC, which operates radio station WLO for ship-to-shore communications, made its facilities available during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath to the Coast Guard and other emergency agencies.

“Shortly after the worst of the storm passed us on Monday afternoon, we received a telephone call from the Coast Guard’s ATC [Aviation Training Center] Mobile, informing us that the roof was damaged over their operations center and they had lost all communication capability with their assets,” reported ShipCom president Rene Stiegler. “In response, ShipCom prepared a VHF radio, power supply, and emergency antenna , transporting it to ATC Mobile. With this radio, ATC could communicate with ShipCom.”

Using ShipCom’s advanced interoperability systems, Stiegler said “we took over all communications for over 24 hours, relaying hundreds of messages from aircraft back to ATC Mobile,” which had been chosen as the main staging site largely because it was the closest suitable facility to the worst of the storm-stricken area.

ShipCom was able to provide these services to the Coast Guard and other agencies despite sustaining substantial damage to its own facilities. “We lost 50 percent of our antenna field,” said Stiegler, “and part of our roof is damaged. We lost 70 to 80 percent of our capacity but we repaired it sufficiently within 24 hours to be able to stay on the air throughout the crisis.”

Stiegler noted that ShipCom “devoted most of our normal capacity – the channels usually reserved for our ship-to-shore clients – to the Coast Guard’s emergency communications.”

“Some of the messages we received were chilling,” said Stiegler. “Reports of bodies floating near the Superdome, and of rescue aircraft being fired at, raised the hairs on the back of our radio operators’ necks.”

As search-and-rescue operations grew, Stiegler said, “ShipCom relayed coordinates of victims stranded on rooftops to the rescue aircraft and relayed reports of their rescue back to the ATC command center. The vastness of message traffic that passed through our radios is too large to describe in detail.”

In addition to ATC Mobile, ShipCom also established communications links for the command center in Alexandria, Louisiana, and with the NCS (National Communications System) SHAred RESources (SHARES) High Frequency (HF) Radio Program.

Rene Stiegler is available for media interviews. He can be reached by email at info@shipcom.com. For more information about ShipCom LLC, visit www.shipcom.com.