In November 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared a national emergency in response to the Iran hostage crisis. This declaration is still in effect along with more than 40 others, representing an egregious overreach of executive power that must end.
The U.S. executive branch has a long history of using national emergencies to expand its power, usually only temporarily. However, in 1973, a Senate special committee found that four outdated national emergencies were still in effect, granting presidents power they shouldn’t have had.
In response, the National Emergencies Act was passed in 1976, ending those emergencies and requiring presidents to renew national emergencies each year for them to remain in effect. This law was intended to rein in executive power, but since presidents could just indefinitely renew each national emergency, this was more of a minor inconvenience instead.
Congress can override the president’s declaration of a national emergency, but it needs a supermajority to do so, or two-thirds of both the House and the Senate. Since Congress is currently split in half regarding President Donald Trump, this isn’t likely to happen anytime soon, especially regarding the current president’s own national emergencies.
A national emergency doesn’t allow a president to do whatever they want, but it permits them to do many things they normally can’t. Many of the continually renewed national emergencies allow presidents to sanction other countries; other powers they gain under national emergencies are calling in military reservists, involuntarily extending military tours of duty, freezing assets and banning visas for foreign individuals, granting access to emergency funds, and waiving environmental laws, all without congressional approval.
This is a failure of the separation of powers: Through declaring a “national emergency,” presidents can circumvent Congress so long as members of Congress agree with them. Moreover, presidents can loosely interpret what a national emergency permits them to do to further expand their powers, such as when Trump declared a national emergency in 2019 to secure funding for his border wall by labelling it a “military construction project.”
The National Emergencies Act of 1976 has long since been proven to be useless at reining in presidents and their ability to declare national emergencies. To prevent the executive branch from becoming too powerful, the ability to declare national emergencies should be passed on to Congress instead.
The current system allows for one person to empower themselves effectively on a whim. A safer and more democratic approach would be to have Congress decide if there is a national emergency, and when that national emergency has ended.
