"Your president has the most extraordinary powers, doesn't he?" "Only in war-time." "Then, if I were an ambitious president, I'd keep the country forever at war." We Have Been Under Emergency Rule since 1917 ***************************************************************** CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE 37669, CXIX--2373--Part 29 November 19, 1973 PERMANENT EMERGENCY Mr. CHURCH. Mr. President, an excellent editorial on the state of national emergency in which the United States finds itself appeared in the Nation of October 8. I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed in the RECORD. There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows: PERMANENT EMERGENCY The United States by law, has been in a constant state of emergency since 1917. Congress then gave the President broad powers under the Trading with the Enemy Act, and has never taken them back. Over the years since, Congress has added to the President's extraordinary powers with almost 600 separate bills broadening his right to rule the country if he so wishes, without regard to normal constitutional processes. Under these various laws, the President "may seize properties, mobilize production, seize commodities, institute martial law, seize control of transportation and communications, regulate private capital, restrict travel and, in a host of other ways, control the activities of all American citizens." The words are those of Senators Frank Church (D., Idaho) and Charles Mathias (R., Md.), who this year have been investigating the nation's emergency laws. Their findings are frightening. According to what their Special Committee on the Termination of a National Emergency has dug up, it is at least possible that a President, if he thought he was about to be impeached, could use his emergency powers to remain in office and, after legally declaring a new emergency, impose martial law upon the country. The Church-Mathias committee is about to publicize 470 of the more significant emergency statutes, and then we should have a better understanding of how far Congress has evaded its responsibilities. The irony is that during present Congressional debates and proposals on the subject, almost no Congressmen appreciate the extent of the emergency powers which the President now holds; even if some of the current measures limiting executive authority over spending and military action were enacted, the President would still retain his emergency powers and could do just about everything, quite legally, that the new laws would seek to prevent. One effect of the emergency statutes is that the government continues to demand that a citizen obey orders which by no stretch of the imagination can be related to the state of affairs which allegedly justifies them. Thus in 1970, a federal Court of Appeals upheld the Cuban Assets Control Regulations on authority of the Korean War emergency declared by President Truman twenty years earlier. Two years ago, Congress repealed the World War II Emergency Detention Act, and civil libertarians sighed in relief. But remaining on the federal law books is a provision designed as a World War II power and headed "Restrictions in Military Areas and Zones." In essence, it gives any military commander the right to put a citizen in jail after a President legally declares a new national emergency. Another "emergency" statute gives the President power "upon application of the country concerned [to] detail members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to assist in military matters (1) any republic in North America, Central America or South America; (2) the Republic of Cuba, Haiti or Santo Domingo; and (3) during a war or declared national emergency any other country that he considers it advisable to assist in the interest of national defense." The President, if he wished, could today find it legally simple to send the boys back into Vietnam. The Church-Mathias committee has found that some of the emergency statutes have become part of everyday activities of the federal government; some deal with export control, international investments, tariffs and certain contract bidding practices. Thus it will not do simply to revoke the basic emergency laws tied to the Great Depression and the World Wars, since that would wipe out some statutes which should be recast in the form of permanent law. The Church-Mathias staff is expected to suggest which of the emergency laws should be enacted into permanent legislation and which can be scrapped when an end to emergencies is declared by Congressional revocation. The staff is also expected to recommend enforced, permanent Congressional supervision of any national emergency legislation which might remain or be newly enacted. It seems sensible to suggest that no Presidential emergency authority be permitted to run beyond a specified period without Congressional re-enactment. But can Congress act responsibly and swiftly in a national emergency, or does the modern age dictate that the Chief Executive always retains broad powers to put the country into an emergency and to give the executive branch wide control of human and economic activity? The answer is that Congress can act if it wants to. Emergencies seldom befall us overnight, the war in Vietnam certainly did not, and any one able to read should have seen the dangers in allowing the dollar drain to continue for years. Prof. Gerhard Casper of the University of Chicago told the Church-Mathias committee: "While kings, even Presidents, may abdicate, Congress has no constitutional right to do so. Emergency powers are among the most serious dangers to democracy. All that is doubtful is whether members of Congress have the will to abide by their constitutional oath of office." ***************************************************************** Senate Report 93-549, written in 1973, said "Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency." It goes on to say: "A majority of the people of the United States have lived all their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the constitution have, in varying degrees, been abridged by laws brought into force by states of National emergency. In the United States, actions taken by government in times of great crisis have... in important ways shaped the present phenomenon of a permanent state of National emergency."... "These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of federal law. These hundreds of statutes delegate to the President extraordinary powers, ordinarily exercised by Congress, which affect the lives of American citizens in at host of all- encompassing manners. This vast range of powers, taken together, confer enough authority to rule this country without reference to normal constitutional process." "Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property, organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens." ***************************************************************** For further study on the War Powers, read "Constitution: Fact or Fiction" by Dr. Eugene Schroder (first published in 1995), The Story of the Nation's Descent from a Constitutional Republic through a Constitutional Dictatorship to an Unconstitutional Dictatorship, ISBN 1-885534-06-X, available for $14.95 from either Dr. Eugene Schroder at (719) 787-9958, or Buffalo Creek Press at (800) 610-4908. "Most people understand that something has gone wrong between the government and the American people. This book is the first I've read that brings the whole picture into focus." - Charley Jones, host of "Texas Overnight", Texas State Network "Dr. Schroder has uncovered the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle that has eluded other very able researchers. His expose is not only a mind boggling concept, but also a revelation of panoramic proportions." - Dr. Jacques Jaikaran, author of Debt Virus, President, Global Monetary Consultants "Schroder's grasp of the Constitution and the use of war and emergency powers to undermine it is uncanny." - Larry Becraft, Constitutional Attorney, Huntsville, Alabama "America needs to read this book! We cannot deal with the problem until we know what it is. Schroder's research gives us the needed ammunition." - Larry Pratt, Executive Director, Gun Owners of America, Springfield, Virginia ***************************************************************** END OF FILE