Federalism Roundup

On Monday we'll be moving on to talk in more detail about the second key structural feature of the American political system -- the separation of powers and checks and balances. I'll post more about that over the weekend. For now, here's some stuff to supplement today's discussion of federalism:

Via youtube, "Federalism and You":

The Real ID Act of 2005

Here's the text of the legislation that was passed in 2005. The Department of Homeland Security (the federal department charged with implementing the Real ID law) has some information here. You might also check out the National Conference for State Legislatures' Count Down site, which has info about the Real ID saga from the standpoint of the states. As I mentioned in class, a google search should turn up lots of opinion pieces on the law.

No Child Left Behind

More info is available from the federal government's department of education here.

Faith-Based Initiatives

Here's the website of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (WHOFBCI).

ISU and the Morrill Act

As I mentioned in class, the founding of ISU 150 years ago had to do with the politics surrounding the United States' first grant-in-aid program, namely the provision of funding for states to establish land-grant colleges by the Morrill Act of 1862. You can read about it in this paper (.doc) by Retired Distinguished History Professor John Freed.

Mississippi River Flood Relief

Something we didn't get to talk very much about today is the functioning of federalism in times of crisis. The Constitution does say something about this in Article IV:

The United States shall...protect each of them [the states] against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.

In other words, the federal government is authorized to intervene if a state is invaded by an outside force, and also if the state is facing an uprising from within its borders and its government requests federal assistance.

What happens, though, when a state needs help recovering from a natural disaster? Until the twentieth-century, disaster relief was largely left as a state/local responsibility. This began to change in 1927, when the federal government (including then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover) helped respond to major Mississippi River flooding that started in Cairo, IL.

For a sense of the extent of the damaged caused by the 1927 flood (and very early moving picture technology), check out this silent documentary created by the US Army Corps of Engineers a few years later:

As I write, the Mississippi River is flooding the states surrounding it yet again -- and the federal government is stepping in to assist in the relief effort. Here are statements from the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).