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91-383 GOV
CRS Report for Congress
National Emergency Powers
Harold C. Relyea
Specialist in American National Government
Government Division
December 10, 1990
Revised April 29, 1991
INDEX
Index.
NATIONAL EMERGENCY POWERS
SUMMARY
The President of the United States has available certain
powers that may be exercised in the event that the Nation is threatened by
crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances (other than natural
disasters, war, or near-war situations). Such powers may be stated
explicitly or implied by the Constitution, assumed by the Chief
Executive to be constitutionally permissible, or inferred from or
specified by statute. Through legislation, Congress has made a great many
delegations of authority in this regard over the past 200 years.
There are, however, limits and restraints upon the President in his
exercise of emergency powers. With the exception of the habeas
corpus clause, the Constitution makes no allowance for the
suspension of any of its provisions during a national emergency. Disputes
over the constitutionality or legality of the exercise of emergency powers
are judicially reviewable. Indeed, both the Judiciary and Congress, as
co-equal branches, can restrain the Executive regarding emergency powers.
So can public opinion. Furthermore, since 1976, the President has been
subject to certain procedural formalities in utilizing some statutorily
delegated emergency authority. The National Emergencies
Act
(50 U.S.C. 1601-1651) eliminated or modified some statutory grants
of emergency authority, required the President to declare formally the
existence of a national emergency and to specify what statutory authority,
activated by the declaration, would be used, and provided Congress a means
to countermand the President's declaration and the activated
authority being sought.
Index.
NATIONAL EMERGENCY POWERS
Federal law provides a variety of powers for the President to use in
response to crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances threatening the
Nation. Moreover, they are not limited to military or war situations. Some
of these authorities, deriving from the Constitution or statutory
law, are continuously available to the President with little or no
qualification. Others--statutory delegations from Congress--exist on a
stand-by basis and remain dormant until the President formally declares a
national emergency. These delegations, or grants of power, authorize the
President to meet the problems of governing effectively in times of
crisis. Under the powers delegated by such statutes, the President may seize
property, organize and control the means of production, seize
commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial
law, seize and control all transportation and communication,
regulate the operation of private enterprise,
restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United
States citizens. Furthermore, Congress may modify,
rescind, or render dormant such delegated emergency authority.
Until the crisis of World War I, Presidents utilized emergency powers
at their own discretion. Proclamations announced their exercise of
exigency authority. However, during World War I and thereafter, Chief
Executives have had available to them a growing body of stand-by emergency
authority which became operative upon the issuance of a proclamation
declaring a condition of national emergency. Sometimes such proclamations
confined the matter of crisis to a specific policy sphere, and sometimes
they placed no limitation on the pronouncement whatsoever. These
activations of stand-by emergency authority remained acceptable practice
until the era of the Vietnam war.
In 1976, Congress curtailed this practice with the passage of the National
Emergencies Act.
Index.
BACKGROUND AND HISTORY
The exercise of emergency powers had long been a concern of the
classical political theorists, including the eighteenth century English
philosopher John Locke, who had a strong influence upon the
Founding Fathers in the United States. A preeminent exponent of a
government of laws and not of men, Locke argued that occasions may
arise when the Executive must exert a broad discretion in meeting special
exigencies or "emergencies" for which the legislative power has
provided no relief or existing law grants no necessary remedy. He did not
regard this prerogative as limited to wartime, or even to situations of
great urgency. It was sufficient if the "public good" might be
advanced by its exercise./1
Emergency powers were first expressed prior to the actual founding of
the Republic. Between 1775
and 1781,
the Continental Congress passed a series of acts and resolves which count
as the first expressions of emergency authority./2
These instruments dealt almost exclusively with the prosecution of the
Revolutionary War.
At the Constitutional Convention
of 1787,
emergency powers, as such, failed to attract much attention during the
course of debate over the charter for the new government. It may be
argued, however, that the granting of emergency powers by Congress is
implicit in its Article I, section 8 authority to "provide for the
common Defense
and general Welfare,"
the commerce clause,
its war,
armed forces,
and militia powers, and the "necessary
and proper" clause empowering it to make such laws as are required to
fulfill the executions of "the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers
vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in
any Department
or Officer thereof."
There is a tradition of constitutional interpretation that has resulted
in so-called implied powers, which may be invoked in order to respond to
an emergency situation. Locke seems to have anticipated this
practice. Furthermore, Presidents have occasionally taken an emergency
action which they assumed to be constitutionally permissible. Thus, in the
American governmental experience, the exercise of emergency powers has
been somewhat dependent upon the Chief Executive's view
of the Presidential office.
Perhaps the President who most clearly articulated a view of his office
in conformity with the Lockean position
was Theodore Roosevelt. Describing what came to be called the
"stewardship" theory of the Presidency, Roosevelt wrote
of his "insistence upon the theory that the executive power was
limited only by specific restrictions and prohibitions appearing in the
Constitution or imposed by the Congress under its constitutional powers.
"It was his view " that every executive officer, and above all
every executive officer in high position, was a steward of the
people," and he "declined to adopt the view that what was
imperatively necessary for the Nation could not be done by the President
unless he could find some specific authorization to do it." Indeed,
it was Roosevelt's belief that, for the President, "it was not
only his right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation
demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the
laws."/3
Opposed to this view of the Presidency was Roosevelt's former
Secretary of War, personal choice for, and actual successor as Chief
Executive,
William Howard Taft.
America's
twenty-seventh President viewed his office in more limited terms, writing
"that the President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and
reasonably traced to some specific grant of power or justly implied and
included within such express grant as proper and necessary to its
exercise. In his view, such a "specific grant must be either in the
Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof.
There is, "Taft concluded," no undefined residuum of
power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public
interest .... /4
Between these two views of the Presidency lie various gradations of
opinion, resulting in perhaps as many conceptions of the office as there
have been holders. One authority has summed up the situation in the
following words:
Emergency powers are not solely derived from legal sources. The extent
of their invocation and use is also contingent upon the personal
conception which the incumbent of the Presidential office has of the
Presidency and the premises upon which he interprets his legal powers.
In the last analysis, the authority of a President is largely determined
by the President himself./5
Finally, apart from the Constitution, but resulting from its prescribed
procedures, there are statutory grants of power for emergency conditions.
The President is authorized by Congress to take some special or
extraordinary action, ostensibly to meet the problems of governing
effectively in times of exigency. Sometimes these laws are only of
temporary duration. The Economic Stabilization Act
of 1970, for example, allowed the President to impose certain wage and
price controls for about three years before it eventually expired
automatically in 1974./6
The statute gave the President emergency authority to address a crisis in
the Nation's economy.
Of course, many of these laws are continuously maintained or
permanently available for the President's ready use in responding to an
emergency. The Defense Production Act, originally adopted in
1950 to prioritize and regulate the manufacture of military material, is
exemplary of this type of statute./7
Lastly, there are various stand-by laws which convey special emergency
powers once the President formally declares a national emergency
activating them. In 1973, a Senate special committee studying emergency
powers published a compilation identifying some 470 provisions
of Federal law delegating to the Executive extraordinary authority in time
of national emergency./8
The vast majority of them are of the stand-by kind-dormant until activated
by the President. However, formal procedures for invoking these
authorities, accounting for their use, and regulating their activation and
application were only recently established by the National
Emergencies Act
of 1976./9
Index.
THE EMERGENCY CONCEPT
Relying upon constitutional authority or congressional delegations made
at various times over the past 200 years, the President of the United
States may exercise certain powers in the event that the continued
existence of the Nation is threatened by crisis, exigency, or emergency
circumstances. What is a national emergency?
In the simplest understanding of the term, the dictionary defines an
emergency as "an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the
resulting state that calls for immediate action."/10
In the midst of the crisis of the Great Depression,
a 1934 Supreme Court majority opinion characterized an emergency in terms
of urgency and relative infrequency of occurrence as well as equivalence
to a public calamity resulting from fire, flood, or like disaster not
reasonably subject to anticipation./11
An eminent constitutional scholar, the late Edward S. Corwin,
explained emergency conditions as being those which have not attained
enough of stability or recurrency to admit of their being dealt with
according to rule."/12
During congressional committee hearings on emergency powers
in 1973, a political scientist described an emergency in the following
terms: "It denotes the existence of conditions of varying nature,
intensity and duration, which are perceived to threaten life or well-being
beyond tolerable limits."/13
Corwin also indicated it "connotes the existence of conditions
suddenly intensifying the degree of existing danger to life or well-being
beyond that which is accepted as normal."/14
There are perhaps at least four aspects of an emergency condition. The
first is its temporal character: an emergency is sudden, unforeseen, and
of unknown duration. The second is its potential gravity: an emergency is
dangerous and threatening to life and well-being. The third, in terms of
governmental role and authority, is the matter of perception: who discerns
this phenomenon? The Constitution may be guiding on this question, but not
always conclusive. Fourth, there is the element, of response: by
definition, an emergency requires immediate action, but is, as well,
unanticipated and, therefore, as Corwin notes, cannot always be
"dealt with according to rule." From these simple factors arise
the dynamics of national emergency powers./15
These dynamics can be seen in the history of the exercise of emergency
powers.
Index.
LAW AND PRACTICE
During the summer of 1792, residents of western Pennsylvania, Virginia,
and the Carolinas began forcefully opposing the collection of a Federal
excise tax on whiskey. Anticipating rebellious activity, Congress enacted
legislation providing for the calling forth of the militia to suppress
insurrections and repel invasions./16
Section 3 of this statute required that a Presidential proclamation be
issued to warn insurgents to cease their activity./17
If hostilities persisted, the militia could be dispatched. On August 17,
1794,
President Washington issued such a proclamation. The insurgency
continued. The President then took command of the forces organized to put
down the rebellion./18
Here was the beginning of a pattern of policy expression and
implementation regarding emergency powers. Congress legislated
extraordinary or special authority for discretionary use by the President
in a time of emergency. In issuing a proclamation, the Chief Executive
notified Congress that he was making use of this power and also apprised
other affected parties of his emergency action.
Over the next 100 years, Congress enacted various permanent and
stand-by laws for responding largely to military, economic, and labor
emergencies. During this span of years, however, the exercise of emergency
powers
by President Lincoln brought the first great dispute over the
authority and discretion of the Chief Executive to engage in emergency
actions.
By the time of Lincoln's inauguration
(March 4, 1861),
seven States of the lower South had announced their secession from the
Union; the Confederate provisional government had been established
(February 4, 1861);
Jefferson Davis had been elected (February 9, 1861) and installed
as president of the Confederacy (February 18, 1861); and an army was being
mobilized by the secessionists. Lincoln had a little over two
months to consider his course of action.
When the new President assumed office, Congress was not in session. For
reasons of his own, Lincoln delayed calling a special meeting of
the legislature, but soon ventured into its constitutionally designated
policy sphere. On April 19, he issued a proclamation establishing a
blockade on the ports of the secessionist States,/19
"a measure hitherto regarded as contrary to both the Constitution and
the law of nations except when the government was embroiled in a declared,
foreign war."/20
Congress, of course, had not been given an opportunity to consider a
declaration of war.
The next day, the President ordered the addition of 19 vessels to the
Navy "for purposes of public defense."/21
A short time later, the blockade was extended to the ports of Virginia and
North Carolina./22
By a proclamation of May 3, Lincoln ordered that the regular
army be enlarged by 22,714 men, that Navy personnel be increased by
18,000,
and that
42,032 volunteers be accommodated for three-year terms of service./23
Such a directive, of course, antagonized many Representatives and
Senators, because Congress is specifically authorized by Article I,
Section 8,
of the Constitution
"to raise
and support armies."
In his July message to the newly assembled Congress, Lincoln
suggested that, while his actions with regard to the expansion of the
armed forces might be legally suspect, "[t]hese measures, whether
strictly legal or not, were ventured upon under what appeared to be a
popular and a public necessity, trusting then, as now, that Congress would
readily ratify them. It is believed," he wrote, "that nothing
has been done beyond the constitutional competency of Congress."/24
Indeed, Congress subsequently did legislatively authorize, and thereby
approve, the President's actions regarding his increasing armed forces
personnel, and would do the same later concerning some other questionable
emergency actions. In the case of Lincoln, the opinion of scholars
and experts is "that neither Congress nor the Supreme Court exercised
any effective restraint upon the President./25
The emergency actions of the Chief Executive were either unchallenged or
approved by Congress, and were either accepted or, because of almost no
opportunity to render judgment, went largely without notice by the Supreme
Court. The President made a quick response to the emergency at hand, a
response which Congress or the Court might have rejected in law, but
which, nonetheless, had been made in fact and with some degree of popular
approval. Similar controversy would arise concerning the emergency actions
of Presidents Woodrow Wilson
and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both men exercised extensive emergency
powers with regard to world hostilities, and Roosevelt also used
emergency authority to deal with the Great Depression. Their emergency
actions, however, were largely supported by statutory delegations and a
high degree of approval on the part of both Congress and the public.
Furthermore, during the Wilson and Roosevelt
presidencies, a major procedural development occurred in the exercise of
emergency powers -- use of a proclamation to declare a national emergency
and, thereby, to activate all stand-by statutory provisions delegating
authority to the President during a national emergency. The first such
national emergency proclamation was issued by President Wilson
on February 5, 1917./26
Promulgated on the authority of a statute establishing the United
States
Shipping Board, the proclamation concerned water transportation
policy./27
It Was statutorily terminated along with a variety of other wartime
measures on March 3, 1921./28
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the next national
emergency proclamation some 48 hours after assuming office./29
Proclaimed March 6, 1933, on the somewhat questionable authority of the Trading
With
the Enemy Act
of 1917,/30
the proclamation declared a so-called "bank holiday" and halted
a major class of financial transactions by closing the banks. Congress
subsequently gave specific statutory support for the Chief Executive's
action with the passage of the Emergency Banking Act
on March 9./31
Upon signing this legislation into law, the President issued a second
banking proclamation, based upon the authority of the new law, continuing
the bank holiday until it was determined that banking institutions were
capable of conducting business in accordance with new banking policy./32
Next, on September 8, 1939,
President Roosevelt promulgated a proclamation of
"limited" national emergency, though the qualifying term had no
meaningful legal significance./33
Almost two years later,
on May 27, 1941, he issued a proclamation of "unlimited"
national emergency./34
This action, however, actually did not make any important new powers
available to the Chief Executive in addition to those activated by the
1939 proclamation.
The President's purpose in making the second proclamation was largely to
apprise the American people of the worsening conflict in Europe and
growing tensions in Asia.
These two war-related proclamations of a general condition of national
emergency remained operative until 1947 when certain of the provisions of
law they had activated were statutorily rescinded./35
Then, in 1951, Congress terminated the declaration of war against Germany./36
In the spring of the following year, the Senate ratified the treaty of
peace with Japan. Because these actions marked the end of World War II
for the United States, legislation was required to keep certain emergency
provisions in effect. Initially, the Emergency Powers
Interim Continuation Act temporarily maintained this emergency
authority./37
It was subsequently supplanted by the Emergency Powers Continuation
Act, which kept selected emergency delegations in force until
August of 1953./38
By proclamation in April of 1952,
President Harry S. Truman terminated the 1939
and 1941
national emergency declarations, leaving operative only those emergency
authorities continued by statutory specification./39
Truman's 1952 termination, however, specifically exempted a
December, 1950, proclamation
of national emergency he had issued in response to hostilities in Korea./40
Furthermore, this condition of national emergency would remain in force
and unimpaired well into the era of the Vietnam war.
Two other proclamations of national emergency also would be promulgated
before Congress once again turned its attention to these matters. Faced
with a postal strike,
President Richard M. Nixon declared a national emergency
in March
of 1970,/41
thereby permitting him to use units of the military Ready Reserve to
assist in moving the mail./42
A second national emergency was proclaimed by Nixon in August,
1971, to control the balance of payments flow by terminating temporarily
certain trade agreement provisos and imposing supplemental duties on some
imported goods./43
Index.
CONGRESSIONAL CONCERNS
In the years following the conclusion of U.S. armed forces involvement
in active military conflict in Korea, occasional expressions of concern
were heard in Congress regarding the continued existence of Truman's
1950 national emergency proclamation long after the conditions prompting
its issuance had disappeared. There was some annoyance that the President
was retaining extraordinary powers intended only for time of genuine
emergency, and a feeling that the Chief Executive was thwarting the
legislative intent of Congress by continuously failing to terminate the
declared national emergency./44
Growing public and congressional displeasure with the President's
exercise of his war powers and deepening U.S. involvement in hostilities
in Vietnam prompted interest in a variety of related matters. For Senator Charles
McC. Mathias, a leader in this policy area, interest in the question
of emergency powers developed out of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the
incursion into Cambodia. "It became clear," he said, "that
the President had powers to commit us to warfare without adequate respect
for the constitutional requirement that Congress alone can declare a state
of war. In response, among other actions, Mathias, together with Senator Frank
Church, sought to establish a Senate special committee to study and
investigate the termination of a 1950 proclamation of national emergency
that was being used to prosecute the Vietnam war, "to consider
problems which might arise as the result of the termination and to
consider what administrative or legislative actions might be
necessary." Such a panel was initially chartered by S. Res. 304 as
the Special Committee on the Termination of the National Emergency in June
of 1972, but did not begin operations before the end of the year./45
With the convening of the 93rd Congress
in 1973, the Special Committee was approved again with S. Res. 9. Upon
exploring the subject matter of national emergency powers, however, the
mission of the Special Committee became more burdensome. There was not
just one proclamation of national emergency in effect, but four such
instruments, issued in 1933,
1950,
1970,
and 1971.
The United States was in a condition of national emergency
four times over, and with each proclamation, the whole collection of
statutorily delegated emergency powers was activated. Consequently, in
1974,
with S. Res. 242, the study panel was rechartered as the Special Committee
on National Emergencies
and Delegated
Emergency Powers to reflect its focus upon matters larger than the 1950
emergency proclamation. It's final mandate was provided by S. Res. 10 in
the 94th Congress, although its termination date was necessarily extended
briefly in 1976
by S. Res. 370.
Senator Church
and Senator Mathias co-chaired the panel./46
The Special Committee conducted and produced various studies during its
existence./47
After scrutinizing the United States Code and uncodified statutory
emergency powers, the panel identified 470 provisions of Federal law which
delegated extraordinary authority to the Executive in time of national
emergency./48
Not all of them required a declaration of national emergency to be
operative, but they were, nevertheless, extraordinary grants. The Special
Committee also found that no process existed for automatically terminating
the four outstanding national emergency proclamations. Thus, the panel
began developing legislation containing a formula for regulating emergency
declarations in the future and otherwise adjusting the body of statutorily
delegated emergency powers by abolishing some provisions, relegating
others to permanent status, and continuing others in a stand-by capacity.
In addition, the panel also began preparing a report offering its findings
and recommendations regarding the state of national emergency powers in
the Nation.
Index.
THE NATIONAL EMERGENCIES ACT
The Special Committee, in July of 1974, unanimously recommended
legislation establishing a procedure for the Presidential declaration and
congressional regulation of a national emergency. The proposal also
modified various statutorily delegated emergency powers./49
In arriving at this reform measure, the panel consulted with various
executive branch agencies regarding the significance of existing emergency
statutes, recommendations for legislative action, and views as to the
repeal of some provisions of emergency law./50
This recommended legislation was introduced by Senator Frank Church for
himself and others on August 22, 1974, and became S. 3957. It was reported
from the Senate Committee on Government Operations on September 30 without
public hearings or amendment./51
The bill was subsequently discussed on the Senate floor on October 7, when
it was amended and passed./52
Although a version of the reform legislation had been introduced in the
House on September 16, becoming H.R. 16668, the Committee on the
Judiciary, to which the measure was referred, did not have an opportunity
to consider either that bill or the Senate adopted version due to the
press of other business--chiefly the impeachment of President Nixon
and the nomination of Nelson A. Rockefeller to be Vice President of
the United States. Thus, the National Emergencies Act failed
to be considered on the House floor before the final adjournment of the
93rd Congress.
With the convening of the next Congress, the proposal was introduced in
the House on February 27, 1975, becoming H.R. 3884, and in the Senate on
March 6, becoming S. 977. House hearings occurred in March and April
before the Subcommittee on Administrative Law and Governmental Relations
of the Committee on the Judiciary./53
The bill was subsequently marked-up and, on April 15, was reported in
amended form to the full committee on a 4-0 vote.
On May 21, the Committee on the Judiciary, on a voice vote, reported the
bill with technical amendments./54
During the course of House debate on September 4, there was agreement to
both the committee amendments and a floor amendment providing that
national emergencies end automatically one year after their declaration
unless the President informs Congress and the public of a continuation.
The bill was then passed on a 388-5 yea and nay vote and sent to the
Senate, where it was referred to the Committee on Government Operations./55
The Senate Committee on Government Operations held a hearing on H.R.
3884 on February 25, 1976,/56
The bill was subsequently reported on August 26 with one substantive and
several technical amendments./57
The following day, the amended bill was passed and returned to the House./58
On August 31, the House agreed to the Senate amendments,/59
clearing the proposal for President Gerald Ford's signature on
September.l4./60
As enacted, the National Emergencies Act consists of five
titles. The first of these generally returned all stand-by statutory
delegations of emergency power activated by an outstanding declaration of
national emergency to a dormant state two years after the statute's
approval. However, the Act did not cancel the 1933, 1950,
1970,
and 1971 national emergency proclamations because these were issued by the
President pursuant to his Article II constitutional authority.
Nevertheless, it did render them ineffective by returning to dormancy the
statutory authorities they had activated, thereby necessitating a new
declaration to activate stand-by statutory emergency authorities.
Title II provides a procedure for future declarations of national
emergency by the President and prescribes arrangements for their
congressional regulation. The statute establishes an exclusive means for
declaring a national emergency. Furthermore, emergency declarations shall
automatically terminate after one year unless formally continued for
another year by the President, but may be terminated earlier by either the
President or Congress, Originally, the prescribed method for congressional
termination of a declared national emergency originally was a concurrent
resolution adopted by both Houses of Congress. This type of so-called
"legislative veto" was effectively invalidated by the Supreme
Court in 1983./61
The National Emergencies Act was amended in 1985 to
substitute a joint resolution as the vehicle for rescinding a national
emergency declaration./62
When declaring a national emergency, the President must indicate,
according to Title III, the powers and authorities being activated to
respond to the exigency at hand.
Certain Presidential accountability and reporting requirements
regarding national emergency declarations are specified in Title IV, and
the repeal and continuation of various statutory provisions delegating
emergency powers is accomplished in Title V.
Since the 1976 enactment of the National Emergencies Act,
the following national emergencies have been declared pursuant to its
provisions. With the exception of the 1983
and 1984 actions continuing export control regulations, all of these
emergency declarations are operative.

TABLE 1:
DECLARED NATIONAL EMERGENCIES, 1976-1990/63
| Declaration |
Date |
Title |
| E.O. 12170 |
11/14/79 |
Blocking Iranian
Government Property |
| E.O. 12211 |
04/17/80 |
Further Prohibitions on
Transactions with Iran |
| E.O. 12444 |
10/14/83 |
Continuation of Export
Control Regulations |
| E.O. 12470 |
03/30/84 |
Continuation of Export
Control Regulations |
| E.O. 12513 |
05/01/85 |
Prohibiting Trade and Certain
Other Transactions Involving
Nicaragua |
| E.O. 12532 |
09/09/85 |
Prohibiting Trade and Certain
Other Transactions Involving
South Africa |
| E.O. 12543 |
01/07/86 |
Prohibiting Trade and Certain
Transactions Involving Libya |
| E.O. 12635 |
04/08/88 |
Prohibiting Certain Transactions
With Respect to Panama |
| E.O. 12722 |
08/02/90 |
Blocking Iraqi Government
Property
and Prohibiting
Transactions with Iraq |
| E.O. 12730 |
09/30/90 |
Continuation of Export
Control Regulations |
| E.O. 12735 |
11/16/90 |
Chemical and Biological
Weapons Proliferation |
In its final report, issued in late May of 1976, the Special Committee
concluded "by reemphasizing that emergency laws and procedures in the
United States have been neglected for too long, and that Congress must
pass the National Emergencies Act to end a potentially
dangerous situation./64
The panel's recommended legislation, of course, was enacted into law
before the end of the year.
Other issues identified by the Special Committee as deserving attention
in the future, however, did not fare so well. The panel, for example, was
hopeful that standing committees of both Houses of Congress would review
statutory emergency power provisions within their respective jurisdictions
with a view to the continued need for and possible adjustment of such
authority./65
Actions in this regard probably were not as ambitious as the Special
Committee expected. A title of the Federal Civil Defense Act
of 1950, granting the President or Congress power to declare a civil
defense emergency in the event an attack on the United States occurred or
was anticipated, expired in June of 1974 after the House Committee on
Rules failed to report a measure continuing the statute./66
A provision of emergency law was refined in May of 1976. Legislation
was enacted granting the President the authority to order certain selected
members of an armed services reserve component to active duty without a
declaration of war or national emergency./67
Previously, such an activation of military reserve personnel had been
limited to a "time of national emergency declared by the
President" or "when otherwise authorized by law."/68
Another refinement of emergency law occurred in 1977 when action was
completed on the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act./69
Reform legislation containing this statute/70
modified a provision of the Trading With
the Enemy Act
of 1917 authorizing the President to regulate the Nation's international
and domestic finance during periods of declared war or national emergency./71
The enacted bill limited the President's Trading With
the Enemy Act power to regulate the country's finances to times of
declared war. In the International Emergency Economic Powers Act;
it conferred authority on the Chief Executive to exercise controls over
international economic transactions in the future during a declared
national emergency and established procedures governing the use of this
power, including close consultation with Congress when declaring a
national emergency to activate the IEEPA. Such a declaration would be
subject to congressional regulation under the procedures of the National
Emergencies Act./72
Other matters identified in the final report of the Special Committee
for congressional scrutiny included--
- investigation of emergency preparedness efforts conducted by the
executive branch;
- attention to congressional preparations for an emergency and
continual review of emergency law; ending open-ended grants of
authority to the Executive;
- investigation and institution of stricter controls over delegated
powers; and
- improving the accountability of Executive decision making./73
There is some public record indication that certain of these points,
particularly the first and the last, have been addressed in the past
decade and a half by congressional overseers./74
Index.
CONCLUSION
The development, exercise, and regulation of emergency powers, from the
days of the Continental Congress to the present, reflect at least one
highly discernible trend: those authorities available to the Executive in
time of national crisis or exigency have, since the time of the Lincoln
Administration, come to be increasingly rooted in statutory law. The
discretion available to a Civil War President in his exercise of emergency
power has, to a considerable extent, been harnessed in the contemporary
period. Furthermore, due to greater reliance upon statutory expression,
the range of this authority has come to be more circumscribed, and the
options for its use have come to be regulated procedurally through the National
Emergencies Act. Since its enactment, however, the National
Emergencies Act has not been revisited by congressional overseers.
Nonetheless, as the final report of the Senate Special Committee on
National Emergencies suggests, the prospect remains that further
improvements and reforms in this policy area might be pursued and
perfected.
Index.
NATIONAL EMERGENCY POWERS:
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARTICLES
- Bowman, Mary M. C. Presidential Emergency Powers Related to
International Economic Transactions. Vanderbilt Journal
of Transactional Law,
v. 11,
Summer 1978: 515-534.
- Culp, Maurice S. Executive Power in Emergencies. Michigan Law
Review,
v. 31, June 1933:
1066-1096.
- Fay, James S. Restraints on Executive Emergency Power in the United
States and Canada. Hastings International and Comparative Law Review,
v. 3,
Fall 1979: 127-149.
- Fuller, Glenn E. The National Emergency Dilemma: Balancing the
Executive's Crisis Powers with the Need for Accountability. Southern
California
Law Review,
v. 52,
July 1979:
1453-1511.
- Genovese, Michael A. Democratic Theory and the Emergency Powers of
the President. Presidential Studies Quarterly, v. 9,
Summer 1979:
283-289.
- Klieman, Aaron S. Preparing for the Hour of Need: Emergency Powers
in the United States.
Review of Politics, v. 41,
April 1979:
235-255.
- ----- Preparing for the Hour of Need: The National Emergencies
Act. Presidential Studies Quarterly, v. 9,
Winter 1979:
47-64.
- Lijphart, Arend. Emergency Powers and Emergency Regimes: A
Commentary. Asian Survey, v. 18,
April 1978:
401-407.
- Lobel, Jules. Emergency Power and the Decline of Liberalism. Yale
Law Journal, v. 98,
May 1989:
1385-1433.
- Miller, Arthur S. Constitutional Law: Crisis Government Becomes the
Norm. Ohio State Law Journal, v. 39,
1978: 736-751.
- Relyea, Harold C. Reconsidering the National Emergencies Act:
Its Evolution, Implementation, and Deficiencies. Center for the Study
of the Presidency Proceedings, v. 5,
1984: 274-323.
- Robinson, Donald L. The Routinization of Crisis Government. Yale
Review, v. 63,
Winter 1974:
161-174.
- Roche, John P. Executive Power and Domestic Emergency: The Quest for
Prerogative. Western Political Quarterly, v. 5,
December 1952:
592-618.
- Rossiter, Clinton L. Constitutional Dictatorship in the Atomic Age.
Review of Politics, v. 11,
October 1949:
395-418.
- Sturm, Albert L. Emergencies and the Presidency. Journal of
Politics, v. 11,
February 1949:
121-144.
Index
BOOKS
- Blackman, John L. Presidential Seizure in Labor Disputes.
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1967. 351 p.
- Corwin, Edward S. Total War and the Constitution. New York,
Alfred A. Knopf, 1947.
162 p.
- Cullen, Donald E. National Emergency Strikes. Ithaca, New
York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell
University, 1968.
134 p.
- Higgs, Robert. Crisis and Leviathan. New York, Oxford
University Press, 1987.
339 p.
- Janeway, Eliot. The Economics of Crisis: War, Politics, and
the Dollar. New York, Weybright and Talley, 1968.
317 p.
- Koenig, Louis W. The Presidency and the Crisis: Powers of the
Office From the Invasion of Poland to Pearl Harbor.
New York,
King's Crown Press, 1944.
166 p.
- Murphy, Paul L. The Constitution in Crisis Times 1918-1969.
New York,
Harper and Row, 1972.
541 p.
- Randall, James G. Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1951. 596 p.
- Rankin, Robert S. and Winfred Dallmayr. Freedom and
Emergency Powers in the Cold War.
New York,
Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1964.
277 p.
- Rich, Bennett Milton. The Presidents and Civil Disorder.
Washington, The Brookings Institution, 1941.
235 p.
- Rockoff, Hugh. Drastic Measures. New York, Cambridge
University Press, 1984.
285 p.
- Rossiter, Clinton L. Constitutional Dictatorship. New York,
Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1963. 322
p.
Index
DOCUMENTS
- U.S. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations. Trading
With the Enemy: Legislative and Executive Documents Concerning
Regulation of International Transactions in Time of Declared National
Emergency. Committee print, 94th Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976.
684 p.
- U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations and
Special Committee on National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency
Powers. The National Emergencies Act: (Public Law
94-412). Source Book: Legislative History, Texts, and Other Documents.
Committee print, 94th Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976.
360 p.
- ----- Special Committee on National Emergencies and Delegated
Emergency Powers. A Brief History of Emergency Powers in the United
States. Committee print, 93rd Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974.
140 p.
- ----- Executive Orders in Times of War and National Emergency.
Committee print, 93rd Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974.
283 p.
- ----- National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency Powers. S. Rept.
94-922,
94th Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976.
38 p.
- ----- Special Committee on the Termination of the National
Emergency. Emergency Powers Statutes. S. Rept. 93-549,
93rd Congress,
Ist session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1973.
607 p.
- ----- National Emergency. [3 parts.] Hearings,
93rd Congress,
Ist session.
April 11, 12,
July 24,
and November 28, 1973.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1973.
917 p.
Index.
FOOTNOTES
1.
Thomas I. Cook, ed. "Two Treatises of Government" by John
Lock.
New York,
Hafner Publishing
Company, 1947,
pp. 203-207;
Edward S. Corwin.
"The President:
Office and Powers," 1787-1957.
Fourth Revised Edition.
New York,
New York
University Press, 1957,
pp. 147-148.
2.
See J. Reuben Clark, Jr., comp. Emergency Legislation Passed
Prior to December 1917 Dealing with the Control and Taking of Private
Property for the Public Use, Benefit, or Welfare, Presidential
Proclamations and Executive Orders Thereunder, to and Including January
31, 1918, to Which Is Added a Reprint of Analogous Legislation Since
1775.
Washington,
U.S. Govt.
Print. Off., 1918,
pp. 201-228.
3.
Theodore Roosevelt. An Autobiography. New York,
The Macmillan
Company, 1913,
pp. 388-389.
4.
William Howard Taft. Our Chief Magistrate and his Powers. New
York,
Columbia University
Press, 1916, pp. 139-140; for a direct response to Theodore
Roosevelt's expression of Presidential power, see William Howard
Taft.
The Presidency.
New York,
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916,
pp. 125-130.
5.
Albert L. Sturm. Emergencies and the Presidency. Journal of
Politics, v. 11,
February, 1949,
pp. 125-126.
6.
See 84 Stat. 799-800, 1468;
85 Stat. 13, 38, 743-755;
and 87 Stat. 27-29.
7.
See 64 Stat. 798;
50 U.S.C. App. 2061 et. seq.
8.
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on the Termination of the
National Emergency. Emergency Powers Statutes. S. Rept. 93-549,
93rd Congress,
Ist session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1973.
9.
90 Stat. 1255; 50 U.S.C. 1601-1651.
10.
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield,
G & C Merriam Company,
1974, p. 372.
11.
Home Building and Loan Association v. Blaisdell,
290 U.S. 398, 440 (1934).
12.
Edward S. Corwin. The President: Office and Powers, 1787-1957,
p. 3.
13.
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on the Termination of the
National Emergency. National Emergency. Hearings, 93rd Congress,
Ist session.
April 11-12, 1973.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1973,
p. 277.
14.
Ibid., p. 279.
15.
While the concept of emergency powers can arguably be extended to
embrace authority exercised in response to circumstances of natural
disaster, this dimension is not within the scope of this report. Various
Federal response arrangements and programs for dealing with natural
disasters have been established and administered with no potential or
actual disruption of constitutional arrangements. With regard to Corwin's
characterization of emergency conditions, these long-standing
arrangements and programs suggest that natural disasters do "admit
of their being dealt with according to rule.
16.
1Stat. 264-265.
17.
This authority may presently be found at 10 U.S.C. 334 (1988).
18.
See James D. Richardson, ed. A Compilation of the Messages and
Papers of the Presidents. Vol. 1.
New York, Bureau of National Literature, 1897,
pp. 149-154.
19.
See Ibid., Vol. 7, pp. 3215-3216.
20.
Clinton L. Rossiter. Constitutional Dictatorship. New York,
Harcourt,
Brace,
and World, 1963,
p. 225.
21.
Ibid.
22.
See James D. Richardson, comp. A Compilation of the Messages and
Papers of the Presidents. Vol. 7, p. 3216.
23.
See Ibid., pp. 3216-3217.
24.
Ibid., p. 3225.
25.
James G. Randall. Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1951; also see Wilfred E.
Binkley. President and Congress. New York,
Alfred A. Knopf, 1947,
pp. 124-127; Clinton L. Rossiter.
Constitutional Dictatorship, pp. 233-234;
and Woodrow Wilson. Constitutional Government in the United
States.
New York,
Columbia University
Press, 1907,
p. 58.
26.
39 Stat. 1814.
27.
39 Stat. 728.
28.
41 Stat. 1359.
29.
48 Stat. 1689.
30.
40 Stat. 411.
31.
48 Stat. 1.
32.
48 Stat. 1691.
33.
54 Stat. 2643.
34.
55 Stat. 1647.
35.
61 Stat. 449.
36.
65 Stat. 451.
37.
66 Stat. 54; extended at 66 Stat. 96, 137,
and 296.
38.
66 Stat, 330; extended at 67 Stat. 18
and 131.
39.
66 Stat. c31.
40.
64 Stat. A454.
41.
84 Stat. 2222.
42.
See 10 U.S.C. 673 (1970).
43.
85 Stat. 926.
44.
The historical record suggests that, prior to 1973 when congressional
research revealed their existence, other outstanding proclaimed national
emergencies were not apparent to or much discussed by Members of
Congress.
45.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. National
Emergencies Act.
Hearings, 94th Congress,
Ist session.
March 6, 13, 19,
and April 9, 1975.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1975,
p. 20.
46.
Other members of the Special Committee included Senators Clifford P.
Case,
Clifford P. Hansen,
Philip A. Hart,
James B. Pearson,
Claiborne Pell, and
Adlai E. Stevenson III.
47.
See U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies and
Delegated Emergency Powers. A Brief History of Emergency Powers in the
United States.
Committee print,
93rd Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974;
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies and
Delegated Emergency Powers. A Recommended National Emergencies
Act.
S. Rept. 93-1170,
93rd Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974;
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies and
Delegated Emergency Powers. Executive Orders in Times of War and
National Emergency. Committee print, 93rd Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974;
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies and
Delegated Emergency Powers. Executive Replies. [3 parts.]
Committee print,
93rd Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974;
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies and
Delegated Emergency Powers. National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency
Powers. S. Rept. 94-922,
94th Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976;
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on the Termination of the
National Emergency. Emergency Powers Statutes. S. Rept. 93-549,
93rd Congress,
Ist session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1973;
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on the Termination of the
National Emergency. National Emergency. [13 parts.]
Hearings,
93rd Congress,
Ist session.
April 11, 12,
July 24,
November 28, 1973.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1973.
48.
See U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on the Termination of the
National Emergency. Emergency Powers Statutes.
49.
See. U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies
and Delegated Emergency Powers. A Recommended National Emergencies Act.
50.
See U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies and
Delegated Emergency Powers. Executive Replies.
51.
See U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. National
Emergencies Act.
S. Rept. 93-1193,
93rd Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974.
52.
See Congressional
Record, v. 120,
October 7, 1974,
pp. 34011-34022.
53.
See U.S. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary, National
Emergencies Act.
Hearings,
94th Congress,
Ist session.
March 6,
13, 19,
and April 9, 1975.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1975.
54.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. National Emergencies.
H. Rept. 94-238,
94th Congress,
Ist session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1975.
55.
Congressional
Record, v. 121,
September 4, 1975,
pp. 27631-27647;
Ibid., September 5, 1975,
p. 27745.
56.
See U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. National
Emergencies Act.
Hearing,
94th Congress,
2d session.
February 25, 1976.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print, Off., 1976.
57.
See U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. National
Emergencies Act,
S. Rept. 94-1168,
94th Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976.
58.
See Congressional
Record, v. 122,
August 27, 1976,
pp. 28224-28228.
59.
Ibid., August 31, 1976, p. 28466.
60.
90 Stat. 1255;
50 U.S.C. 1601-1651 (1988);
see U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations and
Special Committee on National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency
Powers. The National Emergencies Act
(Public Law 94-412).
Source Book:
Legislative History,
Texts, and Other Documents. Committee print, 94th Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976.
61.
See Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha,
462 U.S. 919 (1983).
62.
See 99 Stat. 405, 448.
63.
The full texts of the cited executive orders declaring a national
emergency may be found in the Title 3 compilations of the Code of
Federal Regulations for the year indicated, or otherwise as follows: E.O.
12170,
3 C.F.R.,
1979 Comp., pp. 457-458;
E.O. 12211,
3 C.F.R., 1980 Comp.,
pp. 253-255;
E.O. 12444,
3 C.F.R., 1983 Comp.,
pp. 214-215;
E.O. 12470,
3 C.F.R., 1984 Comp.,
pp. 168-169;
E.O. 12513,
3 C.F.R., 1985 Comp., p. 342;
E.O. 12532,
3 C.F.R., 1985 Comp.,
pp. 387-391;
E.O. 12543,
3 C.F.R., 1986 Comp.,
pp. 181-182;
E.O. 12635,
3 C.F.R., 1988 Comp.,
pp. 563-564;
E.O. 12722,
Federal Register, v. 55,
August 3, 1990,
pp. 31803-31804;
E.O. 12730,
Federal Register, v. 55,
October 2, 1990,
pp. 40373- 40374.
64.
U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies and
Delegated Emergency Powers. National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency
Powers, p. 19.
65.
Ibid., p. 10.
66.
See 50 U.S.C.
App. 2297 (1970);
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Extending Civil
Defense Emergency Authorities. H. Rept. 93- 1243,
93rd Congress,
2d session.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974;
Associated Press. Rules Panel Halts Bill on War Powers. Washington Post,
September 19, 1974,
p. A5.
67.
90 Stat. 517; 10 U.S.C. 673b.
68.
See 10 U.S.C. 673 (1970).
69.
See 50 U.S.C. 1701-1706 (1988).
70.
See 91 Stat. 1625.
71.
See 12 U.S.C. 95a and 50 U.S.C. App. 5(b) (1976).
72.
Of related interest to these statutory developments, President Ford,
by proclamation of February 19, 1976, gave notice that E.O. 966,
providing for the internment of Japanese-Americans in certain military
areas during World War II, was canceled as of the issuance of the
proclamation formally establishing the cessation of World War II on
December 31, 1946.
See 3 C.F.R.,
1976 Comp.,
pp. 8-9. Certain statutory authority relevant to this executive order,
concerning the creation of military areas and zones, was canceled by the
National Emergencies Act.
See 18 U.S.C. 1383 (1976). However, not all such authority was
eliminated by the statute; a parallel provision concerning defensive sea
areas was retained without modification or qualification. See 18 U.S.C.
2152 (1988).
73.
See U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on National Emergencies and
Delegated Emergency Powers. National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency
Powers, pp. 11-18.
74.
See, for example, U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Government
Operations. Presidential Directives and Records Accountability
Act.
Hearing, 100th Congress,
2d session.
August 3, 1988.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1989;
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.
Emergency Preparedness and the Licensing Process for Commercial Nuclear
Power Reactors. [2 parts.]
Hearings, 98th Congress,
Ist session.
April 18
and July 8, 1983.
Washington,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1985.
Index
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