A permanent emergency: Trump becomes third president to renew extraordinary post-9/11 powers
Gregory Korte
USA TODAY https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/14/permanent-emergency-trump-becomes-third-president-renew-extraordinary-post-9-11-powers/661966001/
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump observe a moment of silence at the White House Monday on the 16th anniversary of 9/11.
WASHINGTON — President Trump has become the third president to renew a post-9/11 emergency proclamation, stretching what was supposed to be a temporary state of national emergency after the 2001 terror attacks into its 17th year.
Exactly 16 years ago Thursday, President Bush signed Proclamation 7463, giving himself sweeping powers to mobilize the military in the days following terrorist attacks that crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field. It allowed him to call up National Guard and Reserve troops, hire and fire military officers, and bypass limits on the numbers of generals that could serve.
Presidents Bush and Obama renewed that emergency each year. And on Wednesday, Trump published a now-routine notice in the Federal Register extending the emergency for the 16th time, explaining simply that "the terrorist threat continues."
But as Trump extends the emergency into a third presidential administration, legal experts say a review of those powers is long overdue.
"The president is given these emergency powers as a temporary measure until Congress has time to act. It stretches credulity to think Congress hasn’t had time to act since 9/11 happened," said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "We should not be treating 9/11 as an emergency in 2017."
The perpetual war footing has had a striking lack of examination. Under the National Emergencies Act — a post-Watergate law intended to rein in presidential emergency powers — the president needs to renew the emergency each year or it lapses. But Congress is also supposed to review each emergency every six months. It never has.
And it's not just 9/11. Presidents have declared scores of emergencies over the past 40 years, dealing with everything from the Iran Hostage Crisis to the Swine Flu. More than 30 of those national emergencies remain in effect — and Congress has never reviewed a single one in the history of the National Emergencies Act.
More:Special report: America's perpetual state of emergency
More:Justice Department: President can't use emergency powers in secret
More:To bridge transition, Obama renews seven national emergencies
In his first eight months in office, Trump has kept in place the states of emergency put in place by his predecessors. But he's also signaled that he may make novel use of emergency powers. He said last month that he was drawing up papers to declare a state of national emergency to address opioid addiction, a unique public health crisis unlike the infectious diseases that have prompted previous emergencies.
Also last month, Trump set aside congressionally mandated pay increases for military and civilian employees, cutting them to 2.1% for uniformed services and an average of 1.9% for civilians. The law allows the president to cut scheduled pay raises in cases of "national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare."