Understanding the Branches of Federal Government in Emergency Services

1 Branches of Federal Government Bobby Roseberry Fire Science Department, Eastern Gateway Community College FIR 202 Legal Aspects of Emergency Services Professor DeCarlo January 14, 2024

2 Branches of Federal Government The federal government is very important in many aspects of everyone's everyday lives. Emergency services are no different, the federal government sets forth many laws and rules that govern how services are carried out by personnel in the emergency service. Anyone who is in this field needs to understand the importance of educating yourself on the laws and rules that one must follow depending on their career. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the branches of the federal government, to describe the functions that each branch carries out, identify and describe the source of federal authority, and to describe the relationship with state authority. Literature Review The federal government is separated into 3 branches known as, the legislative branch,executive branch and judicial branch. These branches were created by the Constitution of the United States. In addition to the three branches of government being formed/created the Constitution also included a system called check and balances. This system allows the different branches of government to maintain oversight of each other to keep them in check. In return it can prevent one branch from becoming too powerful (West, 2022). Legislative branch is made up of the House and Senate members. The House has 435 members, the number of members from each state depends on the population size of each state, with that being said some states may only have one member where other states can have multiple members. To keep larger states from overpowering the smaller states the Senate was created. The Senate is made up of 100 members, 2 members from each state. The Legislative branch writes laws and performs specific duties that are outlined in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution (West, 2022). Some of these duties include regulate interstate and foreign commerce, lay and collect taxes, coin money, borrow money on the credit of the United States, can declare war, and establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court (West, 2022).

3 The Executive branch is made up of the President of the United States, his/her advisors and various departments and agencies. The executive branch is responsible for executing/enforcing the laws that were passed by the legislative branch. In addition per Article ll, Sections 2 and 3 the president has the authority and responsibility to perform the following functions/roles, command the armed forces as the commander-in-chief, oversee the executive departments, issue reprieves and pardons, make treaties with approval from the Senate, faithfully execute the laws of the United States, and nominate and appoint ambassadors, public ministers, consuls,Supreme Court justices, and other executive officers only with the advice and consent from the members of the Senate (West, 2022). Judicial branch consists of the United States Supreme court and any other federal courts that are created by Congress. Judicial branch is responsible for hearing cases involving the following issues and parties, ambassadors and other public ministers and councils, admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, controversies to which the United States is a party, controversies between two or more states, controversies between citizens of different states, and controversies involving foreign states, citizens, and subjects (West, 2022). The source of federal authority is granted by the United States Constitution where it gives the federal government the basis for its Authority. Although the Constitution provides the government with the power and authority they are still limited, unless the Constitution specifically grants the authority to act, known as enumerated powers (West, 2022). The 10th Amendment specifically grants the states and their citizens all power not specifically reserved for the federal government. If the Constitution does not specifically grant authority to the federal government to perform, then the authority for that then resides with the state (West, 2022). Conclusion The federal government plays roles in a lot of everyday activities. However each state has the ability to regulate for the safety, health and well-being of its citizens. The establishment and

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

4 regulation of fire departments and EMS agencies fall within each state’s policy powers (West, 2022). It's important for every member in the emergency services to understand the branches of the federal government and states and know what policies they need to understand and follow.

5 Reference West. G. (2022) Legal aspects of emergency services (2nd ed.) Jones & Bartlett

FIR202 Assignment #1

Related Documents