Ap Gov Hurricane Katrina

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AP Government Blog Post:

Article: Is Federalism the Reason for Policy Failure in Hurricane Katrina?
Vocabulary Terms: 1. Federalism: A system of government in which power is divided between the state and federal governments. a. Federalism as a whole is not responsible for the failure to effectively respond to Hurricane Katrina. However, opportunistic federalism is seen as a major reason for the failure. 2. Cooperative Federalism: A type of federalism in which the federal and state governments interact and collaborate. a. The federal and state governments needed to work together to recovery after Hurricane Katrina; however, there is blame that the Federal government did not contribute enough to prepare for and respond to the hurricane. 3. Devolution: A type of federalism in which power is given back to the States. a. Some people suggest devolution as a policy towards dealing with natural disasters; give more power to the state and local governments in dealing with natural disasters because we cannot rely on the federal government to do it. Summary: This article provides a brief background of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and describes how different types of federalism, along with government agencies, could have been the reason for the failure to adequately prepare for and respond to Hurricane Katrina. The shift in focus from natural disasters to the War on Terror, as well as the creation of the DHS after September 11th, has dwarfed the power and range of abilities of FEMA to deal with major natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. The article explains how opportunistic federalism has caused superficial, short-term improvement, rather than sustainable solutions, in the disaster response area of the government. It also gives multiple possible explanations for the failure on the part of the federal government to effectively prepare and respond to Katrina, including the sheer size of the hurricane, the conflict between state and federal goals (which impedes on the objective of cooperative federalism), and the legal constraints placed on the federal government. Evaluation: Thanks to cooperative federalism, the local and state governments can work with the federal government to effectively respond to natural disasters. However, a large part of the burden was given to the local and state governments during Hurricane Katrina because the federal government had become more concerned with the War on terror, thus setting FEMA aside and leaving natural disasters as a low priority. This became an apparent mistake when Hurricane Katrina. This is a comprehensive article that examines the multiple possibilities for the cause of failure in the federal agencies; however, it seems to focus more on problems within the federal government (such as the DHS and FEMA) more so than on how the agencies communicated (or failed to communicate) with the local and state governments during Hurricane Katrina. Since the US is currently implementing cooperative federalism, and since this article is blaming a type of federalism for the failure in preparation and response to the disaster, it is important to understand how the federal government was interacting with the state of Louisiana, not just the failures of
Nakajima 2 the federal government alone. There are arguments today over whether the federal or state/local governments should have more responsibility in dealing with natural catastrophes. One can see why, after Hurricane Katrina, one would want the federal government to take less responsibility and simply support the state and local governments after they respond. This is the traditional defense in depth policy. However, others argue that the failure in Hurricane Katrina was largely due to the Bush administrations handling of FEMA and the disaster, and that the federal government should get another chance once its administration and its disaster management agencies get remodeled and refocus their priorities. This argument is choice, and the reason is evident in the aftermath of 2012 Hurricane Sandy. For some reason, this article does not mention the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Act of 2006, which greatly improved the efficiency of FEMA and set it in the right direction after Hurricane Katrina; the response to Hurricane Sandy was greatly improved from the response to Katrina. This was because of the Act that revamped FEMA, as well as Obamas will to not have another failure like Hurricane Katrina. The federal preparation for and response to Sandy was much more organized and efficient, and it arguably helped Obama win the 2012 Presidential election. One of the theories presented in this article explaining why the federal government failed to effectively respond to Katrina was that, citizens expectations are too great. It describes why the federal government might not have been able to comply with the demands of the people due to limited resources and legal constraints. However, this theory is undermined by the federal governments response to Hurricane Sandy, which was clearly not impaired by the reasons above.

Ap Gov Hurricane Katrina

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