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Coordination between Jurisdictions
•State
•Federal
– international and interstate
•Among states
–Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)
–Intl Emergency Management Assistance Compact (IEMAC)
•Among state agencies
Speaking Points

We will see great deference given to the state’s authority to protect the health and welfare of the public in a public health emergency, but there are relationships with other jurisdictions that will figure in a public health emergency.

For example, the federal government, perhaps through the US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the Department of Homeland Security may exercise authority, particularly in situations between a foreign country and another state, or in matters that cross one state’s border to another’s.

States and foreign countries may also enter into agreements, much like mutual-aid agreements, which may sound familiar, that are called “compacts.” Maine is a signatory of two major compacts:

The Emergency Management Assistance Compact includes nearly every U.S. state.

The International Emergency Management Assistance Compact includes all six of the New England states, as well as the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec.

These compacts are codified in the Maine statutes, and basically serve as vehicles through which Maine and other jurisdictions agree to request and receive assistance from each other– in this case, during a public health emergency.

The provisions of the compacts apply to the liability and licensure of one jurisdiction’s professionals or emergency responders acting in another’s. They can also include arrangements between the jurisdictions regarding compensation for services that are provided from one jurisdiction to another.

And, coordination among various agencies within a single state is another aspect of coordination, and the one that is probably most obvious to you as you practice in a public health emergency.

You can see that matters that cross state boundaries and jurisdictions is an area of law that is served by interstate compacts and interagency agreements that clarify individual and institutional roles and responsibilities.