[KyARES] RE: [KYHAM] National Disaster Response Plan Needed?

[N4AOF]

> The locals still have to ask for it.  It looks like in this case disaster
> relief & law enforcement are one and the same.

That is a matter of which law you are looking at for different purposes.

The Posse Comitatus Act PROHIBITS the use of the military for domestic law
enforcement.  It says nothing about other federal resources and nothing
about other uses of the military.

The problem with other uses of federal resources isn't that they are
prohibited but rather that they are generally not authorized (and
specifically that they are not funded).  There is a vast difference between
prohibited, unauthorized, and unfunded.

The Stafford Act specifically authorizes the use of federal resources (and
provides a funding mechanism, but not direct funding) for disaster relief
operations when requested by the state and personally approved by the
President.

There are a number of other general and specific authorities, plus a number
of ways for federal action within existing laws that do not require state
action -- short of invoking the Insurrection Act.

Nothing in current law prevents positioning of any federal resources in
anticipation of use in a disaster -- but the costs incurred come out of the
respective agency existing budget (nearly non-existent in late August and
September).

So, yes, the process (under the Stafford Act) requires a state request and
the way that process is implemented requires the state request to be for
specific resourses that exceed the capabilities of the state; but that
doesn't mean that federal authorities HAVE TO sit on their hands waiting for
the state to remember to ask for a 48-foot MilVan with a tractor, a driver,
an assistant driver, and 350 gallons of diesel fuel before they can assign a
driver and assistant to go perform before operations maintenance, fuel up
the tractor, and hook up the trailer (from a legal standpoint it just means
that the Army is paying for the driver, the vehicle, and the fuel out of its
regular operations budget until someone gets around to dotting all the i's
and crossing all the t's.