Bauer & Goldsmith on Emergency Powers Reform
Co-chairs Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith published a piece in Lawfare, “Emergency Powers Reform Advances.” They write:
One of the most important presidential power reforms in many decades—reform of the president’s emergency powers—is making important progress toward passage in Congress.
The president has over 100 statutory authorities, many quite broad, that can be invoked on the basis of a national emergency declared by the president alone. President Biden has invoked one of these emergency authorities to forgive student loans. President Trump invoked another to fund the border wall. Both invocations of emergency power were contested. Neither situation was a real emergency in the sense of “an unexpected and difficult or dangerous situation, especially an accident, that happens suddenly and that requires quick action to deal with it.” This expanded meaning given to “emergency” through broad invocations of emergency powers is becoming a typical feature of the exercise of these powers [ . . . ]
At some point, Congress should address both substantive and procedural reform of IEEPA. But now is not the optimal time to do so, and the perfect should not be the enemy of the very good.” We think this remains true today.