Local, State, and Federal Partnerships
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Local, State, and Federal Partnerships
Introduction
Federal, state, and local partnerships are crucial to the implementation of many policy
programs in the United States given that all these levels of government cover different
administrative areas, which could not operate independently of the two. The federal government
covers the whole nation and is most concerned with implementation of policies across the whole
country. Some of its roles include the construction and maintenance of interstates highways and
the national healthcare system. The state government has jurisdiction only over the individual
state that it is responsible over and it executes all the administrative duties within a particular
state in conjunction with the federal government (Ebel, Petersen, & Vu, 2013). Lastly, the local
government, on the other hand, is usually responsible for a small administrative unit such as a
county or a municipal and is usually in direct contact with the residents of a particular area. The
local government is usually the most effective at reaching out and coordinating government
programs with the local residents. For maximum efficiency, these three levels of government
must work in partnership with each other in order to implement government programs in crucial
areas such as education, healthcare, and trade facilitation among many other partnerships as
explained below.
Federal/State Partnerships in the Support of Humanities Councils
The National Endowment for the Humanities is a federal agency that operates
independently under the executive arm of government whose main function is to provide general
operating support to the state humanities councils for over 56 jurisdictions (NEH, n.d). The NEH
through the Federal/State partnerships office provides grants to most of the state humanities
councils that are run by volunteer boards and also provide technical support on the ground in the
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implementation of most of the state humanities councils’ programs. The Federal/State
partnership enables the NEH to achieve its two critical mandates of advancing knowledge and
understanding of the humanities throughout the United States and of increasing public
awareness, support, and access to the humanities. The partnership office gives grants to the state
councils, consults with them onsite and reviews their work, offers the councils insurance and
maintains a communication network across the humanities network. Through this partnership,
people in most local areas of the state have been able to benefit from specific humanities
programs that target them with content that is relevant and interesting to them. The impact of this
partnership has been profound on local communities as they get access to humanities they could
not access without the grants given through the partnership.
Federal and Local Partnerships Crucial to Public Safety and Justice
At a recent meeting organized by the National Association of Councils (NACo), the
importance of federal and local council’s partnerships in terms of the implementation of justice
and public safety programs was emphasized. Most of the councils represented reiterated the need
for greater partnership with the federal government in the areas of administration of justice,
especially in relation to the indigent defense system (Harris & Murray, 2011). Many county
councils asked for more funding from the federal government so that they could deliver better
services to their local communities, which especially relates to the rural communities that rely
heavily on government programs. The Department of Justice was also put to task about how they
could assist local councils in setting up demonstrations that would create rural public defender
systems. Other issues that were covered included the steps that were to be taken for the
implementation of bail reform, the issue of long-term communications infrastructure for disaster
management and recovery, and the role of partnerships between governments in reducing prison
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populations. All the issues raised and discussed at the meeting highlighted the critical role that
the federal government plays in the implementation of justice and public safety programs that
affect local people especially in the rural areas.
State-Federal partnerships in healthcare
One of the major roles of the federal government is tom provide universal healthcare to
all Americans and it cannot achieve this mandate without the full collaboration of state
governments that are usually responsible for staff and provision of care. The most crucial role of
the federal government in the healthcare industry is to provide health insurance to all Americans
through programs such as Medicaid and other social safety programs. State governments play a
crucial role in ensuring that everyone receives the appropriate medical coverage that they
deserve under the health insurance programs funded by the federal government (Fisher, 2012).
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) there were several options that
were created for both state-based and federal medical insurance programs with majority of the
states opting out of the state-based insurance exchanges that place responsibility for the program
directly on state governments. Many state are leaning towards the state-federal partnership
option in the insurance exchanges program where most of the heavy lifting is left to the federal
government as these partnerships do not require a 50-50 split in labor between the state and the
federal government. Observers and experts warn that these partnerships could cause major
problems for the federal government.
Conclusion
In summary, the few topics do not come close to describing the full scale of federal, state,
and local partnerships in the United States, as such partnerships exist in all government functions
with only a few exceptions. It is important that these partnerships continue to be nurtured and
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refined so that they become more effective for the benefit of the local citizen who pays taxes and
funds most government activities. Therefore, I believe that these partnerships are crucial to the
welfare of all Americans.
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References
NEH. (n.d). About the Federal/State Partnership.
