National Emergencies Act

National Emergencies Act

Long title	An Act to terminate certain authorities with respect to national emergencies still in effect, and to provide for orderly implementation and termination of future national emergencies.
Acronyms (colloquial)	NEA
Enacted by	the 94th United States Congress
Effective	September 14, 1976
Citations
Public law	94-412
Statutes at Large	90 Stat. 1255
Codification
Titles amended	50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense
U.S.C. sections created	50 U.S.C. ch. 34 § 1601 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3884 by Peter W. Rodino (D–NJ) on February 27, 1975 Committee consideration by House Judiciary, Senate Government Operations Passed the House on September 4, 1975 (388-5) Passed the Senate on August 27, 1976 (passed) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on August 31, 1976 (agreed) Signed into law by President Gerald Ford on September 14, 1976

The National Emergencies Act (Pub.L. 94–412, 90 Stat. 1255, enacted September 14, 1976, codified at 50 U.S.C. § 1601-1651) is a United States federal law passed to stop open-ended states of national emergency and formalize the power of Congress to provide certain checks and balances on the emergency powers of the President. The Act of Congress imposes certain procedural formalities on the President when invoking such powers. The perceived need for the law arose from the scope and number of laws granting special powers to the executive in times of national emergency.

The H.R. 3884 legislation was passed by the United States 94th Congressional session and signed by the 38th President of the United States Gerald R. Ford on September 14, 1976.

Starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, presidents asserted the power to declare emergencies without limiting their scope or duration, without citing the relevant statutes, and without congressional oversight. The Supreme Court in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer limited what a president could do in such an emergency, but did not limit the emergency declaration power itself. A 1973 Senate investigation found (in Senate Report 93-549) that four declared emergencies remained in effect: the 1933 banking crisis with respect to the hoarding of gold, a 1950 emergency with respect to the Korean War, a 1970 emergency regarding a postal workers strike, and a 1971 emergency in response to inflation. Many provisions of statutory law are contingent on a declaration of national emergency, as many as 500 by one count. It was due in part to concern that a declaration of "emergency" for one purpose should not invoke every possible executive emergency power, that Congress in 1976 passed the National Emergencies Act.

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