In the ’50s and ’60s, when I was growing up, the FBI was regarded as one of the most professional and trusted institutions of the federal government. Unfortunately, the reputation of the Bureau has suffered in recent decades and hit rock-bottom during the last administration by becoming Biden’s private militia.

The Trump typhoon briefly offered a chance for this once great institution to get back on its feet, but any hope that the FBI can be redeemed was dashed last Friday when the new director, Kash Patel, failed to turn over the Epstein documents to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Patel’s competence is not in question among committed conservatives, so his inability to deliver can only be a sign that the cancer within the agency has reached the soft tissue. For the FBI, the end must be near.

America need not mourn at all; our Constitution is wonderfully made. According to the 10^th Amendment, the federal government and the individual states have horizontal authorities. It is not a top-down relationship with the states being subservient to or mere branches of the federal government—a notion that has been foisted on us for far too long.

The Constitution also provides an alternative to most federal agencies in the Compact Clause, “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress … enter into Any Agreement of Compact with another State” (Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3). Reversing this negative language, we have the framework for the states, with the consent of Congress, compacting with each other to accomplish some common purpose.

To that end, an interstate compact governed and financed by the member states offers a very clear alternative to a thoroughly corrupt federal agency such as the FBI by:

• Responding to the original need for which the FBI was established.
• Restoring constitutional governance by respecting federalism and returning authority to the individual states.
• Reducing the Federal deficit. The 2023 FBI budget was $10.8 billion. It can be expected that the new “owners,” the states, will demand greater efficiencies when it is their own money that is being spent.
• Addressing the needs of the American people more effectively and avoiding politicization since each state would promote the interests of its own citizens rather than those of a federal overlord.

One part of the mission of the FBI is interstate crime arising from the prohibition of state police pursuing criminals in other states. Notoriously, Bonnie and Clyde took advantage of this by robbing banks on the border of one state and fleeing over the border and out of the jurisdiction of their pursuers. The equivalent of the FBI could be accomplished by an interstate compact, in much the same way Interpol works in Europe. Coordination with local law enforcement would overcome questions of jurisdiction by an agency with only as much authority as the state overseers would give it.

The other parts of the FBI’s mandate are the enforcement of federal laws and preventing spying by foreign countries. These crimes could be handled by federal marshals.

Transforming the FBI into an interstate compact could be just the beginning of a series of remedies for other federal agencies such as the Departments of Education, Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Imagine! A resurgence of federalism.

The government of the American republic is not the federal government alone. It is the federal government and the state governments united. Much of what the federal government does in a centralized manner (especially what is done outside its enumerated powers) can be done by the states. Rather than federal agencies mandating solutions in a one-size-fits-all manner to all the states, these mandates should be remitted either to the states severally or to interstate compacts, answerable to and funded by the state legislatures that would create them rather than the president. Thus, the needs and desires of the people within the territory of each state would be more adroitly accommodated.

Time to Kash in the FBI and try something new.