Governors lose in power struggle over National Guard
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=170453
A little-noticed change in federal law packs an important change in who is in charge the next time a state is devastated by a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina.
To the dismay of the nations governors, the White House now will be empowered to go over a governors head and call up National Guard troops to aid a state in time of natural disasters or other public emergencies. Up to now, governors were the sole commanders in chief of citizen soldiers in local Guard units during emergencies within the state.
A conflict over who should control Guard units arose in the days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. President Bush sought to federalize control of Guardsmen in Louisiana in the chaos after the hurricane, but Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) refused to relinquish command.
Over objections from all 50 governors, Congress in October tweaked the 200-year-old Insurrection Act to empower the hand of the president in future stateside emergencies. In a letter to Congress, the governors called the change “a dramatic expansion of federal authority during natural disasters that could cause confusion in the command-and-control of the National Guard and interfere with states’ ability to respond to natural disasters within their borders.”
The change adds to tensions between governors and the White House after more than four years of heavy federal deployment of state-based Guard forces to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, four out of five guardsmen have been sent overseas in the largest deployment of the National Guard since World War II. Shortage of the Guards military equipment such as helicopters to drop hay to snow-stranded cattle in Colorado also is a nagging issue as much of units heavy equipment is left overseas and unavailable in case of a natural disaster at home.
A bipartisan majority of both chambers of Congress adopted the change as part of the 439-page, $538 billion 2007 Defense Authorization Bill signed into law last October.
Bush Era change
Dear Heaven, W....you sure didn’t think that one through : /
Lord help us to stay strong in this fight.
Tatt
*sigh*
Did not know about this garbage with the Feds overriding the Governors.
The only way to really effect any change any more would be for Governors to unilaterally step in and call up militia. Any able-bodied man or woman with proper armament is to report to local churches for briefing on preparations for war against the Federal government.
It could happen. I don’t think there are any governors in power right now with the spine to do it, but when/if push comes to shove, that might be all that is left.
>A little-noticed change in federal law packs an important change in who is in charge the next time a state is devastated by a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina.
>
>To the dismay of the nations governors, the White House now will be empowered to go over a governors head and call up National Guard troops to aid a state in time of natural
>disasters or other public emergencies. Up to now, governors were the sole commanders in chief of citizen soldiers in local Guard units during emergencies within the state.
>
>A conflict over who should control Guard units arose in the days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. President Bush sought to federalize control of Guardsmen in Louisiana in the
>chaos after the hurricane, but Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) refused to relinquish command.
Interesting, but invalid.
Why? Because [most of] the States have in their own constitutions language giving the control of their National Guard/militia to the governor; such an act of congress (which is NOT at the level of Constitutional Amendment) is a violation of the 5th Amendment which states in part “nor [shall a person] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;” and such an act is tantamount to the deprivation of the liberty of setting their own state’s law (via their State Constitution).
That is, of course, in addition to the 10th Amendment arguments against such.