National Emergencies Act
Sponsor
Rep. Peter Rodino (D-NJ)
What It Says It Does
Section 101 provides that the Act may be cited as the National Emergencies Act. Its long title reads: 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. The Act contains no separate findings or purposes section. Its stated object is to bring emergency powers under orderly control and to provide for their termination.
What It Authorizes
Section 101, Section 201, and Section 202
Section 201, codified at 50 U.S.C. 1621, provides that with respect to Acts of Congress authorizing the exercise of any special or extraordinary power during a national emergency, the President is authorized to declare such national emergency, and that the proclamation shall immediately be transmitted to Congress and published in the Federal Register. The statute does not define national emergency, does not limit the circumstances in which one may be declared, and requires no predicate finding by Congress. It requires only that the President specify which statutory provisions are being activated.
What It Touches
Constitutional Tension
Article I, Section 1 vests all legislative powers in Congress. The Act authorizes the President to activate extraordinary statutory powers by unilateral declaration, with no congressional predicate and no judicial review of the declaration’s basis. The question is whether that delegation is consistent with the separation of powers. No court has ruled on it. The Act as passed in 1976 answered the objection with a check: Section 202(a) provided that an emergency would terminate if Congress passed a concurrent resolution, which requires only simple majorities and is not presented to the President. In INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, decided June 23, 1983, the Supreme Court held such legislative vetoes unconstitutional for violating the presentment and bicameralism requirements of Article I, seven to two, Chief Justice Burger writing, Justices White and Rehnquist dissenting. Congress responded in 1985 by replacing concurrent resolution with joint resolution. A joint resolution must be presented to the President. Terminating an emergency over presidential objection therefore now requires two thirds of both chambers. The check the Act was named for was inverted rather than restored.
Protocol Media reading. No court has ruled either way.
Sunset and Renewal
Sunset clause active.
No sunset clause applying to the Act itself. Section 202(a) was amended by Pub. L. 99-93, Section 801, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1986 and 1987, signed August 16, 1985, which replaced termination by concurrent resolution with termination by joint resolution following INS v. Chadha. Individual emergencies expire under 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), which provides that an emergency terminates on its anniversary unless, within the ninety day period before that date, the President publishes a notice in the Federal Register and transmits it to Congress stating that the emergency is to continue. No federal body maintains a consolidated public count of emergencies currently in effect; a count must be assembled from Federal Register declarations cross referenced against annual continuation notices. The oldest emergency still in force was declared by Executive Order 12170 on November 14, 1979, by President Carter, concerning Iran. It has been continued annually by every President since, most recently on November 5, 2025, each time on the stated ground that relations with Iran have not yet normalized.
Status verified September 2026.