How fraudulent medical certification has put medically unqualified drivers behind the wheels of commercial vehicles, directly causing preventable deaths
If this is an emergency-level interstate problem under federal jurisdiction, it occurs to me that the federal govt currently has authority and resources to institute emergency response pending (let’s posit) a three-year systemic review and overhaul through standard channels. What would that look like? Thoughts off the top of my head:
-Federal DOT controls the administrations governing trucking, aviation, railroad, highways, maritime, and transit. Centralized, uniform medical standards and certifications for all of these at agency level by government-employed or controlled physicians is possible and reasonable.
-A network of federal medical facilities on federally-controlled sites with national coverage already exists. Limited term expansion of funding, expansion of existing facilities, and personnel for a set time are possible. I’m talking about military entrance processing centers and the VA medical center and clinic networks. Medical personnel under federal control should be determining medical eligibility for federally-controlled licenses. Many MEPS and all VAMCs (excluding clinics) currently exist on federal reservations with security and access controlled by military/federal law enforcement. That’s a built-in extra layer of scrutiny filtering over mere physical access to examination facilities. I think it’s a small percentage of illegal aliens, criminals, and potential terrorists who would have the balls to enter those gates and volunteer for the scrutiny.
-Authority, funding, and procedures already exist for amplifying these assets to cover disasters and national security events. General public safety, domestic security, and economic emergency are adjacent issues which are currently degraded by outdated, scattered, corrupt, and ineffectual federal regulatory regimes. The logic and authority are there. Over the lifetimes of all living Americans, they have regularly been employed to project federalization over less important areas of life with lower broad-based public support.
-Emergency measures during the course of a deadlined three- or four-year review and regulatory overhaul would preserve public support (at minimum grudging acceptance) by the population segments whose party is not currently in power. That’s implicit in structuring a process that would have to survive the potential leadership changes of one midterm and one general election.
Is this an emergency? Let’s grow up and start treating it as such.
If this is an emergency-level interstate problem under federal jurisdiction, it occurs to me that the federal govt currently has authority and resources to institute emergency response pending (let’s posit) a three-year systemic review and overhaul through standard channels. What would that look like? Thoughts off the top of my head:
-Federal DOT controls the administrations governing trucking, aviation, railroad, highways, maritime, and transit. Centralized, uniform medical standards and certifications for all of these at agency level by government-employed or controlled physicians is possible and reasonable.
-A network of federal medical facilities on federally-controlled sites with national coverage already exists. Limited term expansion of funding, expansion of existing facilities, and personnel for a set time are possible. I’m talking about military entrance processing centers and the VA medical center and clinic networks. Medical personnel under federal control should be determining medical eligibility for federally-controlled licenses. Many MEPS and all VAMCs (excluding clinics) currently exist on federal reservations with security and access controlled by military/federal law enforcement. That’s a built-in extra layer of scrutiny filtering over mere physical access to examination facilities. I think it’s a small percentage of illegal aliens, criminals, and potential terrorists who would have the balls to enter those gates and volunteer for the scrutiny.
-Authority, funding, and procedures already exist for amplifying these assets to cover disasters and national security events. General public safety, domestic security, and economic emergency are adjacent issues which are currently degraded by outdated, scattered, corrupt, and ineffectual federal regulatory regimes. The logic and authority are there. Over the lifetimes of all living Americans, they have regularly been employed to project federalization over less important areas of life with lower broad-based public support.
-Emergency measures during the course of a deadlined three- or four-year review and regulatory overhaul would preserve public support (at minimum grudging acceptance) by the population segments whose party is not currently in power. That’s implicit in structuring a process that would have to survive the potential leadership changes of one midterm and one general election.
Is this an emergency? Let’s grow up and start treating it as such.