Is Federalism the Reason for Policy Failure in Hurricane Katrina

Jake Henson

Vocabulary Terms 1. Federalism powers are divided between the federal and state government a. Hurricane Katrina showed flaws of the United States form of federalism, in which the lack of relief policy organization was brought to light. A poor job of communication between the state and federal governments gave potential blame on federalism. 2. Coercive Federalism where the federal government has authority over the local and state governments by giving regulations and imposing mandates a. After 9/11, the federal government held strings over the states when funding preparedness aids. 3. Opportunistic Federalism a form of federalism where officials are encouraged to persue their immediate interests instead of considering collective consequences a. The federal government decided to combine FEMA and the Homeland Security because of a scare for containing terrorism, but the thought of disaster relief was overlooked.

Summary Hurricane Katrina is looked back as the most devastating natural disaster America has ever dealt with. Combing the disaster relief and Homeland Security simply did not work. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA were brought together. As shown by the slow relief given by FEMA to the effects of Katrina, combining the two was not effective with dealing with natural disasters. Thomas Birkland and Sarah Waterman debate on whether or not federalism was the cause of the policy failure during Hurricane Katrina, and if not, was the type of federalism the problem? Evaluation Is Federalism the Reason for Policy Failure in Hurricane Katrina? explains the how the state and federal government failed to work together during a time they were needed to most. September 11th, 2001 scared the federal government into putting too much eye on handling terrorism. The federal government decided it would work to combine the FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, when the two should have nothing to do with each other. Decisions were made that fighting against terrorism would be more important than making sure everything back at home was safe. The federal government tried to control everything from Washington D.C., but local issues should be left up to the local and state governments.

Is Federalism the Reason for Policy Failure in Hurricane Katrina

Jake Henson

Katrina shows that the local and state governments should be in charge of controlling preparing and responding to natural disasters. The smaller governments will put more thought and consideration into doing what is best for their home. The federal government should be in charge of the HDS, because fighting terrorism involves our military. Local governments can take the back seat to addressing issues with security of the nation. In preparing for natural disasters, the federal governments main concern should be funding, and personnel provided in response to disasters. In the aftermath of a natural disaster important decisions need to be made and acted upon quickly by local leadership. The federal government is too large of a bureaucracy and too much red tape is involved to make this decision process possible. This is where coercive federalism would show its perks. In opposition, like during Katrinas raid, opportunistic federalism shows why it has huge flaws. Often, the politicians in DC improperly allocate any funds available for disasters to other nonessential areas that serve their interests to help them get re-elected. The funds for disasters should only be spent on ways to protect the people and property involved. For example, too much money was spent on areas that were not vital to the area for hurricane preparedness. The levees were not built adequately enough to handle the amount of water that came ashore. In conclusion, we can look today at the Obama Administration and see the same qualities that failed in 2005. The Obama administration acts opportunistically when it comes to the HDS and FEMA, as seen in October of 2012. Hurricane Sandy hit shore near Atlantic City, New Jersey, and needless to say New Jersey and New York were far from prepared. Federalism is not the problem, but jumping to an opportunity will bring about the fall of our federal government.