Hurricanes spawn debate on expanded role for military

Political leaders led by President Bush are considering how and when the military should take greater control of relief efforts during national disasters. And one answer may be to ensure that the president has the authority to bring in the armed forces during extraordinary circumstances.

“We’re going to look back at (Hurricane) Katrina as a turning point,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said Sunday. “We need the military, because of its extraordinary capabilities, to be ready to play a much more active role. I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult from a congressional point of view.”

He said Congress must make it clear the president is authorized to use the federal military in a crisis, although that may not require legislation.

The question, according to White House and Pentagon officials, is when.

“If you have a situation like a Hurricane Katrina where the state and local first-responders, to a large extent, are victims themselves and somewhat overwhelmed, then what do you do in a situation like that,” said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

“Should there be some sort of a trigger that says `OK, the federal government needs to marshal all their resources quickly and get in there and stabilize the situation.’ And it’s the Department of Defense that has the capability to do that.”

Both he and Lieberman said the trigger would be an extraordinary catastrophe.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, sounded a sharp dissent.

“I don’t want the federal government to take over disaster response, believe me,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in suburban Houston.

DeLay said he could not support a system that did not allow local first responders to remain in charge during a catastrophe. Asked why, he responded: “Bureaucracy. Bureaucracy. Bureaucracy.”

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., sounded a note of caution as well.

She told CNN that while the military has a strong role to play, “We do have a democracy and a citizenship that has elected mayors, county commissioners and governors, particularly. I’m not sure the governors association or all the mayors in America would be willing to sort of step aside.”

But Landrieu’s Louisiana colleague, Republican Sen. David Vitter, said the military was best equipped to respond to emergencies as massive as Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

Others, including Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner, R-Va., have said Congress may review the Posse Comitatus Act, a post-Civil War law that prohibits the military from performing law enforcement duties.

Changing the law would require congressional action, which would trigger debate over how to do it without treading on states’ rights.

Lieberman said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told senators last week that it may not be necessary to change the Posse Comitatus Act because the National Guard is already allowed to do law enforcement.

Under existing law, a state’s governor is chiefly responsible for disaster response, including control over the state’s National Guard. In a crisis, the Guard would be working with active duty troops.

Rumsfeld has not detailed any proposed changes, but he is considering a wide range of options for how the military could be used in domestic emergencies. They could include changing the relationship between federal and state military authorities.

After Katrina, there was some discussion about whether Lt. Gen. Russel Honore — head of the military task force for Hurricane Katrina — should play a dual role and command the active-duty troops and the National Guard. Pentagon officials have so far declined to say any more about that idea.

But in a teleconference Sunday with Bush, military leaders involved directly with the hurricane relief said they believe something must be done. Maj. Gen. M. Scott Mayes, leader of the military’s air component in the hurricane relief effort, told the president that a national plan is needed to have a faster response and save more lives. And Maj. Gen. John White, a member of the military task force for Hurricane Rita, described search-and-rescue operations after Katrina as a “train wreck.”

“With a national plan, we’ll have a quick jump-start and an opportunity to save more people,” said White, the commander of the Alabama Air National Guard.

Meanwhile, military commanders said Navy and Air Force units battled high winds and rain to rescue stranded residents in western Louisiana and Texas.