elationship between Texas State and the Federal Government

Federalism is one of the most important features of the American Constitution. It is an admixture of conflict and collaboration, a system of dynamic tension between multiple levels of government that changes every day. Prior to the outbreak of civil wars in the United States, states were primarily unconcerned with American federalism. The introduction of the income tax, the end of the civil war, World Wars I and II, and the Great Depression all contributed to the development of a stronger federal government. The Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC) was put in place to strengthen the federal and state relations (Gamkhar and Mitchell 364-71). The upgrading of the legislatures at the state level in the 1960s and 1970s refreshed the equilibrium in the national system. For the state of Texas, an office under the office of the governor got established which got mandated with the role of looking into the state and the federal relations in the year 1965. It later became a separate entity in 1971 (Pound 1). The focus of the memo will be the responsibility of the body and how it has evolved.
The Texas Office of State and Federal Relation (OSFR), advocates for the state of Texas at Washington DC. It represents the state government congress and administration in the federal agencies and to present the interest of the state more so about the functions and the missions. The executive director of the agency gets approved by the Senate after being appointed by the governor. The speaker of the house representatives, the Lieutenant Governor and the Governor serves as the board to the agency and engage in advisory roles. The goal of the organization is to increase the influence of the state in the national issues especially the ones that have an indirect or direct impact on the fiscal, economic and or regulatory impact on the state citizens and the maintenance of the participation of Texas at the national level. It can get achieved by providing information on the initiatives of the federal government, ensuring there is an implementation of the legislation favorable to the state of Texas and coordinating the agenda of Texas at the national level (Pound 2).
In the recent past, we have seen the state of Texas in legal battles with the Federal government on different issues, including oversight of the voting rights, environmental regulation and even the health care in the United States of America (Baird and Jacobi 204-10). According to Aaronson (par.1), by the year 2013 eighteen lawsuits were pending in court against the Federal government. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been the most frequent defendant in the various cases brought forth with a total of fourteen cases.
In the year 2010 during the Obama administration, the Dodd-Frank Act got passed. The principal aim of the Act was to avoid another future economic crisis like the one that did happen in the year 2008. The objective of the law was the establishment of the Orderly Liquidation Authority (OLA) that could liquidate the huge financial institutions' inclusive of even the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company whose primary objective is to manage the assets of the various agencies of the government of the state of Texas. The Attorney General Greg Abbott challenged the validity of the authority. In the view of the state, it possesses a significant risk to the to the taxpayers' money, the financial base of the state power is more than 59 million US Dollars. On another hand, the Federal government argued that some of the financial institutions had become too huge. To prosecute them was a challenge because any case brought against the agencies can be quite detrimental to the national economy, the only way to curb them is by initiating this authority it is trying to inhibit (Hylton 1-2).
Recommendation to the President
In a nutshell, the OSFR from the preceding discussion has lived its expectations in representing the interests of the State of Texas. Since the state of Texas is one of the resourceful states in the US more so with the offshore oil, Mr. President, it would be important that you consider the possibility of increasing funding to the agency. Doing this will ensure that the agency puts in place a better control of the resources especially the ones that are within the state of Texas. This will improve the relationship between the state and the Federal government which has always faced challenges due to several court cases.










Works Cited
Aaronson, Becca. Alexa Ura, Chris Chang, Ben, Hasson, and Todd, Todd. "Interactive: Texas Vs. the Feds." The Texas Tribune. Web. July 17th 2013. Accessed May 7th 2017.
Baird, Vanessa and Jacobi, Tonja. "How the Dissent Becomes the Majority: Using Federalism to Transform Coalitions in the U.S. Supreme Court." Duke Law Journal 59.2 (2009):183-238
Gamkhar, Shama and Mitchell, Pickerill J. "The State of American Federalism 2011-2012: A Fend for Yourself and Activist Form of Bottom-Up Federalism." Publius: The Journal of Federalism 42.3 (2012): 357-386.
Hylton, Hilary. "Texas' Legal War with U.S. Government: Challenging Obama."
Time. Web. April 5th 2012. Accessed May 7th 2017.
Pound, William T. "An Observation of the State-Federal Relationship: July/August 2010." National Conference of State Legislatures. Web. October 4th 2010. . Accessed May 7th 2017