The U.S. Congress returns this week to wrap its session. Government funding expires Dec. 20 or the federal government could shut down before Christmas. They’ll either craft a deal or pass a temporary, continuing resolution.
But another critical chore needs immediate attention: Reforming the National Emergencies Act, to guard against abuse of the broad presidential powers the Act grants. The Brennan Center for Justice, among dozens of ideologically-diverse organizations, in an October letter, urged congressional leaders to reform the Act by the end of this session.
President-Elect Trump, in mid-November, confirmed his plan to use such national emergency powers for mass deportation.
The Brennan Center’s letter states: “For the past 100 years, U.S. presidents have been able to access extraordinary powers by virtue of declaring a national emergency — including powers to shut down communications facilities, seize property, organize and control the means of production, assign military forces abroad, and restrict travel.” Until the 1970s, presidents could tap such emergency powers with little or no congressional oversight or limits on time that a state of emergency could last.
The House January 6 committee, according to the Brennan Center and other sources, “continues to find evidence that the United States only narrowly avoided a coup at the end of the Trump administration,” when Republican members of Congress encouraged the former president to use emergency powers to overturn the election.
In February 2019, President Trump circumvented Congress and declared a national emergency for funds to build a border wall. Congress approved a resolution to block the declaration, “but it ultimately fell short of the two-thirds majority required to override Trump’s veto, the first of his presidency.”
Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 used the HEROES Act, an authority available in a national emergency, to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt held by those with incomes under $125,000. Biden used the COVID-19 national emergency declaration, citing the pandemic’s economic hardship on borrowers.
If Congress fails to support Trump’s tariff proposals—and they may, given that Trump’s first-term tariffs hurt the economy—might Trump invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act [IEEPA] to push them through? No president has yet used the IEEP Act for this purpose. Reform legislation has advanced through House and Senate committees: The Article One Act (HR 3988) and the Republic Act (SB 4373) “would impose stronger congressional oversight. Presidential emergency declarations would expire after 30 days unless Congress voted to approve them. In that case, a declaration could last up to one year.” Congress would need to approve renewals, and would require detailed reporting about how emergency powers are used.
Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of Liberty and National Security for the Brennan Institute, sums up the challenge: “Presidents need tools to address emergencies, not tools to dismantle democracy.”
留言