Caitlin: Hi, everyone,
and welcome back to another lecture in module two.
Today, we are focusing on a recap
of Iton and Snyder's Chapter 7 titled Government Agencies:
Administrative Advocacy.
This is a pretty action-packed lecture,
so please feel free to pause however you need
and take as many notes as you want.
So first, I just wanted to review
some major government agencies in the United States.
Some of these examples include
the Environmental Protection Agency,
where their role is to focus on protecting the United States
against different environmental factors.
This is just a very quick summary of what they do.
They do do much more.
The next is the Food and Drug Administration,
more commonly known as FDA.
We often see their role in public health through,
you know, ensuring the safety of food,
cosmetics, medications, et cetera.
We next have the Department of Agriculture, USDA,
where they are looking at public safety
and setting parameters for food,
agricultural, different resources, and nutrition.
We have the Department of Defense
as well as the Department of Health and Human Services.
This is really looking at public health
in terms of preventing disease and promoting health,
and ensuring that services and needed resources
are available to individuals in need.
Part of all of these agencies
is the Administrative Procedure Act, the APA.
This allows for agencies to have power to make changes
but also safeguards and rules for these agencies to follow.
Because this chapter is all about administrative advocacy
and government agencies, and public health advocacy,
I wanted to do a quick civics recap.
I know it's often in our high school curriculum,
but it is easy to forget.
And for individuals who might not be
so well versed in civics, the United States
has three different branches of government.
That includes the legislative branch,
the executive branch, and the judicial branch.
For many different topics, they are ruled federally,
but it can also be state governed,
and that follows a similar branch of legislative,
executive, and judicial.
So when we look at state legislative,
there's upper and larger houses of legislative branches.
The upper chamber is called the Senate.
The lower chamber is the representatives.
We have about two different senators from each state
and over 400 voters in the House of Representatives
who are all working to pass laws and bills
that support and protect the lives
and rights of United States citizens.
When we're looking at government agencies
and administrative advocacy, we have to consider rulemaking,
or what our text support says the process agencies use
to adopt, amend, or appeal regulations.
This is not easy.
To make changes, there are many different steps.
First, it is necessary that the public
be involved and notified.
And that's why, again, community perspective
is so important in public health,
because we need to understand their support or opposition
since these are the people we are serving,
we must be considerate and understanding
to their needs and their viewpoints.
Next, rulemaking has to go through some sort
of branch of legislative, even if it's in an agency.
Rulemaking and changes can't usually be instantaneously.
It usually takes up to one to three months.
And usually, there needs to be an approval
from an agency head or adjudication.
The text also goes through adjudication,
which is just when agencies
try and decipher a regulation break
or violation of the consequences of such violations,
again, keeping some checks and balances
and ensuring that policies and rules
and the structure and integrity of these agencies
maintains to ultimately promote the health
and wellbeing of their constituents.
Licensing and permitting is another part of advocating
and government agencies and administrative advocacies,
and this is ways in which individuals
and businesses can perform jobs with agencies purviews,
for example, agencies allow homeowners
to remodel through a licensing.
We can also view licensing
and permitting in an advocacy lens.
So the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles allows
for continued growth for agriculture
by providing permits such as farm equipment,
dealer permits, single-trip permits.
And there's a great example of why this pertains
to public health advocacy
and the example called Gender Onclusivity
in the Surfing Competition.
And you may be thinking, advocacy and legislator
and this whole lecture don't seem to go together
but very much does.
There are so many disparities in our society
and I could probably do a whole class just on inequities
in our current government and how it is not fair
to so many people who live in the United States.
It's important for us to bring up these disparities
and highlight them
and that is the foundation and the quote unquote "problem"
that our campaigns are trying to solve.
And without an understanding of how our government works
and how to contact the people who matter
to make these changes,
nothing can come over, nothing will come from it.
This, again, will follow the four steps of advocacy change,
and it will take time.
It's important to follow the steps
and talk to as many people as you can
to effectively make a change.
And if all else fails, it's important to remember
that this is a tough field
and it's okay to share your failures.
This sheds lights on disparities still
and perhaps will illuminate a different path
for another organization to go down who uses your mistakes
as a foundation for their growth.
I wanted just to quickly go over
some administrative advocacy pluses and minuses
that was in the text.
That's box 6.6.
Feel free to pause your screen and read over them
but some pluses of administrative advocacy work
within an agency include, you know,
relatively quick turnaround time for change.
Community leaders are not always represented by lawyers
so red tape is a little bit down.
Agency action can happen at any time
and oftentimes there is political pressure involved.
Some downside include
that you don't always get the most sympathetic minds.
You can't guarantee that everybody will be available
to your cause and they may have support for your opposition.
In addition,
it depends on the issue
but it could go more legislative or legal
leading to a longer time or some issues with voting
or red tape that allows you not to pursue your full campaign
in the timeframe you would like.
Again, this entire lecture is based off of Snyder and Iton's
"Advocacy for Public Health Policy Change:
An Urgent Imperative."
This concludes chapter seven.
This was just a quick recap of civics
and how our agencies work and how advocacy is involved
with both government and legislature,
but still relevant to the ultimate goal
of developing a campaign.
I will see you in the next lecture.