What is a State of Emergency? What does it mean? Who has the power to do what? Let’s dive in and explore what Trump’s declaration of a National Emergency actually means.
First off, let’s examine what the point of a State of Emergency even is. The idea of a National Emergency comes from the idea that a president may need flexibility in case of an urgent emergency that requires action quickly enough that there’s no time to go through congress. Seems sound in concept (and usually is in execution, too).
The Emergency powers of the President were originally formalized in the 1976 National Emergencies Act. Since then, 59 National Emergencies have been declared, 30 of which remain in effect. If you’re interested on reading about them, you can see the full list here. Bush’s wiretapping and torture after 9/11 is probably the most notorious example, but the list was surprisingly long to me.
Under the National Emergencies Act, the president has complete discretion to issue an emergency declaration, but he must specify which powers he intends to use, issue public updates, and report to congress every six months. The Senate and the House also have to meet every six months during the emergency to vote on terminating it. The emergency should automatically expire after a year. However, this law has largely failed in practice, as Congress has never met on terminating an emergency, and many emergencies have continued for longer than a year. The full powers of the President under the emergency are specified pretty clearly, though. Read them all here.
My conclusion? The law is pretty clear, but in practice it’s been rarely enforced, leading to a fuzzy and rather worrying reality in which the President can pretty much do whatever he pleases during an emergency – and nobody really knows how to stop him. It seems like the real emergency may be the emergency itself. Emergen-ception.
VOICE OF THE VOTELESS 