Treading Cautiously

A presidential push for increased military control over responses to natural disasters probably shouldn't come as a surprise after the multi-level Katrina snafus. However, if Congress is to seriously consider such a step, they should seriously consider it. That means having hearings, drafting any such legislation with extreme narrowness, and allowing time for debate and deliberation ... not throwing together some shoddy bill so full of loopholes you can drive the 10th Mountain Division through and shoving it through the House and Senate with cursory debate and no time for consideration.

I'm wary - in fact I'm very wary - of any federal assumption of powers traditionally left to state and local officials. While I think good legislation could be drafted granting the military authority under certain well-defined circumstances, I worry about a Congress too willing to slap any fix on the problem and offering up our republic's well-established and basic principles of federalism on a silver platter in order to say they "fixed something."

I would reserve judgment on any specific proposal until I've read it - and I hope that all senators and representatives would do the same (and much much more). As Franklin said, "They that can give up their liberties to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Of course we all want to allow as effective and efficient a government response as possible to catastrophic events - but we still must be watchful, and guard our liberties just as fiercely as we would guard our most prized material possessions.