THE CREEPING COUP: BUSH INVADES STATES' POWERS TO TAKE OVER NATIONAL

[One of America's most important defenses against a dictatorship has
been power of the governors over their state militias: the National
Guard. Bush's action dramatically changes this]

KAVAN PETERSON, STATELINE - 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
nation's governors, the White House now will be empowered to go over a
governor's 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. . .

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 Guard's 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.

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=170453

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