“Governors are referring to this crisis as if it were a previously unknown meteor from space. In fact, we have been discussing the utter lack of prep for a pandemic for over two decades and states like NY were warned that they would be dangerously short such items as ventilators. https://twitter.com/jonathanturley/status/1245843271261106176

I was part of that debate back in 2002 and 2003 when the model law for pandemic was being adopted by states — reaffirming the primary responsibility of the states to address pandemics.

Here is the column:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called on the federal government to take control of the medical supply market. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker demanded that President Trump take charge and said “precious months” were wasted waiting for federal action.

Some critics are even more direct in demanding a federal takeover, including a national quarantine.

It is the legal version of panic shopping. Many seem to long for fed takeovers, if not martial law. Yet like all panic shopping, they are buying into far more than they need

while not doing as much as they could with what they have. For decades, governors tried to retain principal authority over public emergencies, but they did very little with those powers. While many are doing impressive work now, some governors seem as eager to contain the blame

as the coronavirus. Call it political distancing.

Even if Trump nationalized the crisis by deploying troops, imposing price controls, & forcing production of ventilators, the Constitutn has left most police auth & public health safety to the states in our system of federalism.

The Framers believed liberties and powers were safest when held closest to citizens in local and state governments. Elected officials at the local and state levels are more readily held accountable than unknown Washington bureaucrats.

the federal authority of the president to act is much more limited than many appear to believe. Trump cannot, and should not, simply take over the crisis. While he may want to “open for business” by Easter, he has no clear authority to lift state orders for czns to stay at home.

His greatest authority is supplying assistance in the production and delivery of necessary resources such as ventilators. While he can put conditions on some assistance, he cannot commandeer the authority of governors in their responses to the pandemic.

... The Federal Emergency Management Agency was not created until 1979. Its mandate was to coordinate national responses to assist state and local governments in disasters. It was never meant to shift control.

States remain in the best position to address emergencies, and such laws gave governors ample authority to act. But they did relatively little in the next two decades to prepare for public health emergencies.

A NY Health Dept task force report in 2015 has resurfaced, warning that the NY faces a shortage of 15k ventilators in a pandemic. While the report did not call for stockpiling supplies, states clearly have not done enough,individually or collectively, to set aside such resources.

Media coverage has referred to the Natl Emergncy Act ... to suggest that the president can order natl quarantines & take over mgt of this crisis. Actually, these laws follow the same model laid out by the Constitution in leaving the responses to state control.

The often cited Stafford Act, for instance, merely heightens the authority of federal technical, financial, logistical, and other kinds of assistance to state and local govts.

The Defns Prod Act is meant to advance priorities instead of establishing a nationalized industrial base. If co’s have agreed to expand production or retool for new products, then there is no need to impose mandates under this law since that process is unlikely to go any faster.

Natnlzatn can slow rather than speed relief in emrgncies w replacing existing systms. With indemnificatns & lg orders, bsns execs hv incentive to xpand productn.After GM failed to meet the expectatns on price & prodctn, Trump invoked the act,...precisely how it should be handled.

...Unlike highly centralized European countries, our leaders have the ability to make far more tailored responses on a state by state basis. Each state can tailor its response to its individual threats or needs, and look to the federal government for badly needed resources.

When the coronavirus shifts, the federal government will have these fully functioning systems with people who are intimately familiar with the local terrain. Simply put, our balanced form of federalism was made for this pandemic.

@threadreaderapp please unroll

Professor Turley’s article quoted in this thread https://jonathanturley.org/2020/03/30/governors-practice-political-distancing-in-shifting-blame-to-federal-government/