BACKGROUND: Presently no incumbent of the Office of the President of the United States has established a domestic crisis management system or chain of command.
WHY IS THIS BACKGROUND IMPORTANT: First, the President of the United States has two official hats under the CONSTITUTION of the United States. Under Article II, Section 2. of the Constitution, the “President shall be Commander in Chief” of the military forces of the United States. But also under Article II, Section 1, he is the Chief Executive of the United States. Accordingly, this “dual-hatted” role established in the CONSTITUTION requires each President to decide what hat he wears for each action he takes. The President is not a unitary office in other words.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE: The President can by Executive Order establish arrangements for a domestic civil crisis management system and chain of command. This would preclude the necessity to rely on military forces typically untrained and unable to interact with the STATES and federal system except to the extent the National Guard is cross-trained for these purposes and then their role is to support the Governor of each state. As a matter of policy activation of the National Guard under the authority of Title 10 of the US Code is typically to also deprive the respective Governors of their role in domestic civil crisis management. Accordingly, the President should by Executive Order mandate that the Vice President of the United States create and develop and operate and maintain a domestic civil crisis management system that to the extent possible does not involve the Armed Forces of the United State. As with all delegated authority, see 3 US Code Section 301 authorizing the President to delegate any of his/her authority, the President would once he/she has created and approved this system, be able even though delegated to decide to operate this system.
The Executive Order should read as follows:
“Pursuant to the Constitution of the United States and 3 US Code Section 301, the President hereby delegates authority to the Vice President of the United States authority to create and develop, operate and maintain a domestic civil crisis management system and chain of command.
Nothing in the establishment of this system or chain of command shall preclude the President of the United States from operating or controlling this system once he/she has approved or established such system”
