Fema Employment

What is a block grant and what is a fedaral mandate and what does it have to do with...?

state and local and federal employment? AP government essay question anyone whos in it know the hell of it here's a link to the question to any kind history teacher or buff who would like to help thanks ps. i cant get a link for this ques (2003 AP Gov if anyone took it) but the graph provided shows an increase in state and local gov employment since 1945 with a slight decline in 1990, and paid federal government civilian employment stayiny at pretty much a staight line WTF does this have to do with block grants and federal mandates!!!!

Public Comments

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_grant Building accountability into the newly proposed block grants is an important, but difficult, task requiring trade-offs between federal and state control over program finances, activities, and administration. More prescriptive federal requirements can limit the states’ ability to implement block grants in an integrated and efficient fashion. But fewer federal financial and programmatic accountability provisions can limit federal goals and lead to reduced funding and/or recategorization. Accountability provisions will need to strike a balance between the potentially conflicting objectives of increasing state and local flexibility while attaining certain national objectives—a balance that inevitably involves philosophical questions about the proper roles and relationships among the levels of government in our federal system. Well designed accountability provisions help clarify the financial and programmatic relationship between the federal government and the states and could be important in sustaining the block grant approach as these programs mature. There is general agreement that financial accountability provisions implemented through single audits can provide a foundation for assuring that states apply appropriate financial management and internal controls. There is less consensus on whether and how to promote accountability for block grant implementation and results. For those national goals and standards that are established, however, policymakers have options for building in adequate, but less burdensome, provisions. These options include (1) relying on state processes both to manage block grant funds and to monitor and assess compliance, (2) assessing the nature of requirements imposed on states, including the applicability of cross-cutting requirements. Reexamining some of the more burdensome cross-cutting requirements also would provide states with additional flexibility. Cross-cutting requirements—also known as generally applicable requirements—could become some of the more burdensome federal mandates for new block grants because administrative guidance and regulations that have built up over the years to implement them do not discriminate between categorical and block grant programs. Our work has specifically identified one such cross-cutting requirement for potential elimination. We have stated that the Congress could repeal the Davis-Bacon Act cross-cutting requirement because of the act’s administrative problems and associated increases in federal construction costs .