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  • Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State

Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State

William. Kovacs

March 2024

Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State

In my new book, Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic, I address a question more and more citizens are asking: Can a distrusted federal government unite and govern this polarized country? If not, how do we divide?

Readers should not quickly dismiss the idea of devolving federal domestic powers to the states. First, the federal government is de facto bankrupt. Within a decade, it will be forced to substantially reduce or eliminate the subsidies it gives states to implement over a thousand programs the federal government lacks the constitutional authority or resources to implement. The loss of state subsidies will be the catalyst that ignites the devolution of federal powers to the states.

Second, the federal government and the states had a workable power-sharing relationship until the Great Depression. Moreover, until the early 1900s, the collective budgets of the states were larger than the federal government, and states managed most of the nation’s domestic policies. Since 1980, however, there has been a massive explosion of federal power, evidenced by the fact that 97% of the national debt has been accumulated under the last seven presidents. For the federal government to again be a viable governing entity, it must shrink itself so it can competently manage the essential needs of the nation.

If it is constitutional for the federal government to accumulate power by taking it from the states, it is constitutional for the federal government to return many of these domestic powers to the states.

Devolving power to the states is possible since the U.S. federal government is not the United States, although it acts as its ruler. Instead, it is an instrumentality of the people established to manage their governmental affairs. None of our federal officials are granted power as individuals. They are merely volunteers elected as representatives to temporarily manage our government.

Unfortunately, since the federal government’s creation, the individuals acquiring federal power have skillfully blended the powers of the three federal branches into two competing power structures not established by the Constitution. These power structures are called political parties. As such, citizens are no longer protected by the Constitution; they are protected by Democrats or Republicans, depending on which party controls the government apparatus.

Polls show only 20% of citizens trust the U.S. federal government to do what is right most of the time. Almost half of Americans believe the nation is as close to the edge of a Civil War as it was in 1861. Political commentators, mainly on the political Left, pontificate the U.S. will divide into red and blue states or red states will secede from the Union or reform state boundaries. These commentators would welcome unrest in the red states. They fully grasp that the federal government will use all the emergency powers Congress delegated to it and any force necessary to maintain its stranglehold on every aspect of national life. Americans were given a glimpse of these powers in Covid.

Devolving many domestic federal powers to the states may be the only alternative governing mechanism to keep the Union together. It would allow citizens of the respective states greater freedom to live under policies reflecting values closer to where they live rather than national values imposed on them by a distant government and powerful national advocacy groups that do not understand or care about the needs of citizens. In this new governing structure, the federal government would focus on its essential responsibilities to protect the nation, manage activities that directly (not incidentally) impact interstate commerce, defend the dollar’s value, and reduce the national debt. The states would manage most of the nation’s domestic policies, e.g., crime and punishment, labor and environmental standards, energy production, abortion, economic development, permitting, and immigration other than naturalization.

How the U.S. is governed should concern every American since we live with the consequences of the federal government’s massive debt, regulatory sclerosis, continuous wars, open borders, and a declining ability to protect the nation. In our complex society, the cooperation of all levels of government is needed to make society function efficiently for its people. It’s time the federal government stopped worrying about accumulating power and control over citizens and focused on what benefits citizens.

While commentators in the UK, Scotland, and New Zealand have written about devolving federal power to better manage government, the topic is just now being addressed in the United States.

Unlike many books on government reform, Devolution of Power is not just a list of complaints that leave readers seeking solutions. It provides a roadmap for promoting freedom by unwinding the massive accumulation of federal power by returning many domestic functions to the states. It addresses how to restructure a federal government before it collapses the nation by:

  • Identifying the federal government’s apocalyptic flaws,
  • Setting out mechanisms for trimming the national debt and the federal bureaucracy,
  • Providing options for rolling back federal power,
  • Outlining a restructuring plan to devolve federal power to the states and
  • Describing the character traits needed by elected officials to restore trust in government.

The book laments how Congress has fallen into irrelevancy by delegating its most important powers to the president, including declaring war and national emergencies, unauthorized spending, and ignoring the unconstitutional consequences of presidents making new laws by regulation and Executive Order. The book argues that only when Congress regains control over its legislative and spending powers will it understand it created a federal government too big and complex to govern the nation. At that point, the restructuring process can begin.

A fundamental premise in the book is that until our elected officials rekindle John Locke’s idea that no power is granted personally to any government official, every official must serve as fiduciary, not a self-interested politician. To serve as a fiduciary, elected officials must give all their loyalty to the institution they serve and not to the political party that helped elect them. Only by being loyal to the institution they serve can they check the abuses taken by the other branches of government. Only by actively defending our Constitution’s separation of powers structure, no matter who is in charge of the other branches, can our elected officials restrain government and promote the rule of law.

In the final analysis, Devolution of Power argues that the citizens of the U.S. must understand they are responsible for their government and what it does. Citizens do not have the “just following orders” defense since they elect the individuals who manage their government. The citizens of the U.S. are now confronted with an “either/or” situation. Either citizens elect a government of fiduciaries that limit the power of the federal government, regardless of political affiliation, or they must accept living under an all-powerful federal government that is organized around corruption, deception, and eventually brutal tyranny.

William L. Kovacs, author of Devolution of Power, has served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, chief counsel to a congressional committee, chairman of a state environmental board, and a partner in law D.C. law firms. He testified before Congress forty times in his career and participated in hundreds of federal rulemakings. His book Reform the Kakistocracy won the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. 2019, Kovacs received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who.

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  • The Kakistocracy Must Devolve Power to the States

The Kakistocracy Must Devolve Power to the States

William L. Kovacs

August 2019

The Kakistocracy Must Devolve Power to the States

Since the inception of the New Deal programs in the 1930s to address the Great Depression, the federal government has continued to impose its will on more and more aspects of American society.  It has accomplished this power grab by expanding interpretations of the Constitution’s spending and welfare clauses and using its taxing powers to raise the amounts needed to “incentivize” states to adopt and implement federal policy through grants. While the federal government made grants to the states starting in 1900, those grants generally subsidized existing state programs. From the 1960s forward, Congress enacted many new programs, and it needed help to implement them. It found a creative solution – raise taxes to generate sufficient funds to provide grants to states as an incentive for the states to implement federal programs. There were around 132 state grant programs in 1960. Today they number over 1,300. 

Due to a variety of factors, the “heady” decades of federal aggrandizement of power will likely be coming to an end. The states are resisting implementation of specific federal programs they do not want to administer or are not fairly compensated for administering. At the same time, the federal government has amassed debt of almost $22 trillion and annual trillion-dollar budget deficits, thereby making continuing payment for these programs questionable.

Without compromise, capitulation or the continuous printing of money, it is difficult to imagine the current federal-state relationship continuing. If there is a break-up what will happen to the federal programs? What will happen to the federal-state relationship? Could a breakup be the start of a shrinking federal government that devolves powers to the states?

States Returning or Refusing to Implement Federal Programs Has Already Started

The warning sign of state frustration with implementing federal programs is the conflict over “sanctuary states and cities.” Over three-hundred states or cities have refused to enforce federal immigration laws requiring the deportation of unauthorized immigrants, even though they have accepted federal grant monies for law enforcement and other local activities.

The President is frustrated with these challenges to federal authority; however, there is little that can be done other than eliminating the grants. The limits arise under several U.S. Supreme Court decisions which hold that the Tenth Amendment forbids the federal government from commandeering states to implement federal law. Moreover, even when the federal government conditions receipt of federal monies on the implementation specific federal programs, the grant monies can only be withheld when a state or local government agrees to a contract provision that is clear enough for it to decide whether or not to accept the funds. The Supreme Court further limits federal control over grants to state or local governments by forbidding funding conditions in grants so coercive that the circumstances amount to a “gun to the head” situation.

In addition to the outright refusal of states to implement federal programs, not of their liking, there are federal programs, e.g., environmental, that states want to implement but the federal grants only cover a fraction of the cost of implementation. According to a 2016 study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Growing Burden of Unfunded EPA Mandates on States, https://www.uschamber.com/report/the-growing-burden-unfunded-epa-mandates-the-states the states implement approximately 96% of federally delegated environmental programs but only receive 28% of the cost of implementation.

Complicating the debate will be the long-festering issue of state grant inequality. Naturally, that while every federal program is paid for with the tax dollars citizens send to Washington, not every state receives a dollar for dollar return on the money its citizens send to Washington. According to a March 8, 2017 article in The Atlantic, “Which States Are Givers, and Which States Are Takers”, the amount of money given the respective states varies dramatically. South Carolina receives $7.87 for every dollar its citizens send to Washington in taxes. Other states are not so lucky. Fourteen states receive less grant money than they send to Washington in taxes, i.e., Delaware, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio, Kansas, New York, Colorado, Utah, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Massachusetts, and California. Then comes the realization that off the top of every dollar states send to Washington, the federal government takes a percentage cut of the state tax money for having its bureaucrats oversee a state grant program the federal government wants to be implemented.

In each situation, (state not wanting to implement a federal program; the federal government under-compensating the state for its efforts; or the unequal distribution of federal funds), tensions arise over the implementation of these federal programs. These tensions place federal programs at risk of the state refusal to administer them.

The Feds Might Also Pull the Funding Plug

According to a May 7, 2018 study by the Congressional Research Service, Federal Grants to State and Local Government: A Historical Perspective on Contemporary Issue, the federal government is expected to provide state and local governments about $728 billion in grants in FY 2018. More than half of the monies ($400 billion) goes to health care (Medicaid), and the rest to highways, environment, child nutrition, disaster relief, tenant rental assistance, education for the disadvantaged, children’s health insurance, and urban mass transit, among other programs.

These federal funds comprise 1,319 grants, and according to the Tax Foundation, the awards represent between 26% – 49% of state spending, depending on the state. For example, federal funds to Indiana represent 35% of its total state spending. Federal grants to Texas represent 40% of its state’s spending. Federal grants to Virginia only represent 27% of its state’s spending. The amount of these grants has more than doubled from FY 2000, going from $286 billion in FY 2000 to $728 billion in FY 2018.

To the federal government, these grants represent about 18% of its $4 trillion annual budget. The present federal debt carries interest payments of around $250 billion annually. The historically low-interest rates between 2009 – 2107 kept interest payments manageable, but still consuming about 7.4% of the federal budget. The Office of Management and Budget is projecting that interest rates will rise to around 3.6% by 2028, consuming 12.2% of the federal budget and drain the treasury by $761 billion annually, an amount that exceeds the total amount of grants made to states. This deficiency means the federal government will need to find an additional $511 billion annually by 2028 to service the increased debt or it will need to find other budget reductions such as state program grants, to remain at the same fiscal position as today.

Could This Be the Start of Devolution?

The conflicting trends of states not wanting to implement specific federal programs and the federal government not having sufficient money to fully compensate the states for implementing them will start the debate over which programs must be administered and by whom? Therefore, while the federal government becomes more irritated at states that resist administering federal programs, the states that receive less federal funding than needed to implement federal programs or receive an inequitable return on their tax dollars sent to Washington, also become irritated with federal management of the grant programs.

This situation will force states to decide what programs they genuinely want to administer. States will have to balance the impact on their budgets of the loss of federal funds against the cost to the state of administering the federal programs. It might seem that the loss of any federal funds would be a substantial budget impact on states; however, that may not be the case since many states supplement the federal grants with state funds to achieve full implementation of specific federal programs or send more money to Washington than it receives back in grants. 

On the federal side of the equation, the federal government is forced to determine what are its priority programs and to recognize it will have to provide sufficient amounts of money to incentivize full state implementation of priority programs. The selection of priority programs means the federal government, due to budget deficits, will have to reduce or eliminate some state program grants.

Eventually, however, the federal government will have to stop printing money it does not have. State resistance will merely give the federal government a reason to revise or defund certain state grant programs. Once this occurs, the devolutionary process will play out, which means the federal government will stop expanding its authority through incentives to states to implement federal programs. Conversely, States will decide which federal programs they want to continue. In many cases, the states will pay for current federal programs they wish to administer with the dollars saved by eliminating the cost of administering unwanted federal programs and by keeping the tax dollars of their citizens in their state, rather than sending the dollars to Washington for redistribution.

As with any Hobson’s Choice, there is no choice at all. The federal government will shrink, and the states will implement the programs wanted by the citizens of their state. This devolutionary process will restore sovereignty to the states while shrinking federal power to that given the federal government by our Constitution.

Follow Bill  @WilliamLKovacs  

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  • State Legislatures: Last Guardians of the Republic

State Legislatures: Last Guardians of the Republic

William L. Kovacs

July 2019

State Legislatures: Last Guardians of the Republic

The federal government is unable to control its printing of money. The nation has accumulated massive debt.  Wars have continued for years without Congress declaring war. Congress ignores pressing issues such as immigration and health care and fails to enact budgets or appropriations regularly. We need to ask ourselves; can we stop the runaway train before it crashes causing significant injury to the nation?

Our Constitution has many braking systems in place to stop a runaway government, but so far, they have all failed. Primarily, our system of checks and balances which was devised to ensure each branch of government operated as a check on the other branches. As our elected representatives give more and more loyalty to the political party, they are a member of, than to the institution in which they serve, the power of the institution of Congress dwindles leaving only the power of the political party to check the overreaching activities of the opposing political party.

The Executive branch aggressively seeks to increase its power through Executive Order and the issuance of regulations to carry out the intent of the Executive rather than the intent of Congress, thus further diminishing the powers of Congress and the checks and balances so necessary restraining the powers of the federal government.

Our courts affirm the delegation of legislative authority from Congress to the Executive through the passage of broad and vague laws that require the Executive to fill in the legislative blanks. Moreover, when the blanks are filled in, the courts give deference to agency action, viewing the agency as the expert, notwithstanding congressional intent.

The other mechanisms in our Constitution to control a massive federal government have also failed. Every year Congress has the opportunity to control spending through appropriations, yet every year appropriations and our debt increase. In 1970 our debt was $371 billion; in 1982 our national debt reached $1 trillion for the first time, and today we are reaching twenty-two trillion dollars. It is projected that we will add a trillion dollars to our debt every year going forward. If Congress can’t utilize its absolute control over spending to keep the nation living within our means, and the Executive refuses to veto expenditures we cannot afford, then the checks and balances established by our Constitution are useless.

Another possibility is for the people of this nation to control Congress through a common activity that can regularly be utilized – voting. If our present government is failing us, we can change our entire government over six years. Our founders provided us a legal form of peaceful revolution at the ballot box. Unfortunately, it appears that the citizens of this nation are just as split and angry as the politicians in Congress, thus leaving us without the ability to control the federal government.

Fortunately, there is one final option, but one never utilized, to put the brakes on an out-of-control federal government. Article V of the Constitution places such power in the hands of the fifty state legislatures. Under Article V, upon application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, (34), Congress must call a Convention to propose Amendments to the Constitution. The Amendments adopted by the Convention become part of our Constitution if ratified by three-fourths, (38), of the state legislatures or by Conventions of three – fourths of the several states. The method or ratification is up to Congress, and that is the only power Congress has if thirty-four states submit similar applications to Congress.

The state convention process cannot be denied, vetoed or regulated by Congress or the governors of the respective states. The selected delegates would control the Convention. While there have been over four hundred applications to call a Convention of the States, there has not been a sufficient number of states making the same or similar applications.

The point of raising the Article V, Constitutional Amendment process, is not to promote a Convention of the States, a group of the same name is actively pursuing that. My point is to remind all members of the state legislatures that they have taken an Oath that binds them to support the Constitution of the United States as currently constituted. If the state legislatures believe that the massive, debt-ridden, federal government that presently runs our nation is not operating it within the framework of our Constitution, the state legislatures must act for the citizens of the country.

While members of these state legislature may view their duties solely as state functions, the oath they have taken to the Constitution obligates them to ensure the federal government works according to the Constitution. If the federal government operates outside of the Constitution, the state legislatures have been given the constitutional responsibility to save the Republic with a Convention that hopefully restores common sense to the operations of our federal government. If a consensus on Amendments comes out of the convention, the convention delegates will have to persuade the American people and their state legislatures that controlling the federal government is essential to the nation. Reaching a consensus on one or more Constitutional Amendments to control the federal government will be our best chance to reflect not only what we want the country to be, but it will also tell us if we can save the nation.

Follow Bill @WilliamLKovacs