 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(November 2024) |
The Defense Resources Act (DRA) was draft emergency legislation of the United States Government. A 1983 submission to Congress confirmed the existence of the plan. The present and prior status of the DRA proposal is not immediately certain. [1]
Reagan Administration officials presented a draft plan of legislative text that could be submitted to Congress for approval during a national emergency, such as nuclear war. The decision to make such a request would be the prerogative of the president. Congress would be free to accept, modify or reject the proposals. If enacted into law, the DRA would amend the Defense Production Act (DPA).[ citation needed ]
These DRA and DPA enactments collectively would form the basis of a substantial part of Reagan's nuclear war and emergency plans. After enactment, the president would be free to sign orders and directives employing the approved legislation as a legal and statutory basis for presidential emergency powers. Such plans for legislation would coexist with a portfolio of other emergency action papers, including Presidential Emergency Action Documents and Other than a Plan D situation documents.[ citation needed ]
The table of contents of the proposed legislation calls for several Titles that would form the basis of key emergency authorities. Title X authorized the president to direct federal officials to employ limited international censorship of communications entering and leaving the USA. Other draft Titles authorized seizure of industrial plants and economic stabilization via price controls.[ citation needed ]
DPA proposals to Congress by Reagan staff employed significant constitutional safeguards. They do not contain a request for Congress to suspend per se any part of the Constitution. Sections of the law specifically address Fifth Amendment safeguards. Title X limits censorship to information entering or leaving the USA. It did not call for press censorship of domestic news. It should be remembered these plans contemplated nuclear war, in which many freedoms might be in grave wartime jeopardy as the nation fought for its existence.[ citation needed ]
Whether enacted as part of a war emergency or other non-military event, Congress at all times retained the constitutional authority to amend, revoke or modify these authorities, by veto override, should the contingency arise. The proposals did not limit oversight by the Congress or federal judiciary and Supreme Court of the United States, nor did they give the president unlimited or perpetual unilateral or unconstitutional power. However, scholars will need to examine this material in light of current jurisprudence.[ citation needed ]
The question of resolving conflicts between Congress and the White House over authority in these matters would presumably be up to federal courts. The president has inherent constitutional powers that may overlap some proposed plans and that do not derive from Congress. Similarly, presidential powers with respect to the Emergency Alert System would not exist without statute laws of Congress that authorize EAS.[ citation needed ]
Congress could cancel EAS if desired, leaving no FCC rules to carry out EAS presidential messages. Further, the president does not require approval from Congress as to his Commander in Chief powers, but Congress can limit presidential powers by revocation of funding. DPA amendments approved via DRA would simply grant or revoke authorization for the president to act, which he might or might not do. Further, the president is constrained by impeachment, should Congress decide the president abused his authorities. Lastly, all such plans require funding, the source and quantity of which in nuclear war is questionable. Parts of the DPA proposal address the Fifth Amendment mandate to compensate owners for seizure of private property.[ citation needed ]
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
Article Two of the United States Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government, which carries out and enforces federal laws. Article Two vests the power of the executive branch in the office of the President of the United States, lays out the procedures for electing and removing the President, and establishes the President's powers and responsibilities.
The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution extends the right to participate in presidential elections to the District of Columbia. The amendment grants to the district electors in the Electoral College, as though it were a state, though the district can never have more electors than the least-populous state. How the electors are appointed is to be determined by Congress. The Twenty-third Amendment was proposed by the 86th Congress on June 16, 1960; it was ratified by the requisite number of states on March 29, 1961.
The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution addresses issues related to presidential succession and disability.
The War Powers Resolution is a federal law intended to check the U.S. president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. The resolution was adopted in the form of a United States congressional joint resolution. It provides that the president can send the U.S. Armed Forces into action abroad only by declaration of war by Congress, "statutory authorization", or in case of "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces".
A declaration of war is a formal declaration issued by a national government indicating that a state of war exists between that nation and another. A document by the Federation of American Scientists gives an extensive listing and summary of statutes which are automatically engaged upon the United States declaring war.
A supermajority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fundamental rights of a minority, but can also hamper efforts to respond to problems and encourage corrupt compromises at times when action is taken. Changes to constitutions, especially those with entrenched clauses, commonly require supermajority support in a legislature. Parliamentary procedure requires that any action of a deliberative assembly that may alter the rights of a minority have a supermajority requirement, such as a two-thirds vote. In consensus democracy the supermajority rule is applied in most cases.
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952), also commonly referred to as the Steel Seizure Case or the Youngstown Steel case, was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that limited the power of the president of the United States to seize private property. The case served as a check on the most far-reaching claims of executive power at the time and signaled the Court's increased willingness to intervene in political questions.
The powers of the president of the United States include those explicitly granted by Article II of the United States Constitution as well as those granted by Acts of Congress, implied powers, and also a great deal of soft power that is attached to the presidency.
NSA warrantless surveillance — also commonly referred to as "warrantless-wiretapping" or "-wiretaps" — was the surveillance of persons within the United States, including U.S. citizens, during the collection of notionally foreign intelligence by the National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program. In late 2001, the NSA was authorized to monitor, without obtaining a FISA warrant, phone calls, Internet activities, text messages and other forms of communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lies within the U.S.
A signing statement is a written pronouncement issued by the President of the United States upon the signing of a bill into law. They are usually printed in the Federal Register's Compilation of Presidential Documents and the United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN). The statements offer the president's view of the law or laws created by the bill.
The National Emergencies Act (NEA) is a United States federal law passed to end all previous national emergencies and to formalize the emergency powers of the President.
The Bricker Amendment is the collective name of a number of slightly different proposed amendments to the United States Constitution considered by the United States Senate in the 1950s. None of these amendments ever passed Congress. Each of them would require explicit congressional approval, especially for executive agreements that did not require the Senate's two-thirds approval for treaty. They are named for their sponsor, conservative Republican Senator John W. Bricker of Ohio, who distrusted the exclusive powers of the president to involve the United States beyond the wishes of Congress.
The Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950 is a United States federal law enacted on September 8, 1950, in response to the start of the Korean War. It was part of a broad civil defense and war mobilization effort in the context of the Cold War. Its implementing regulations, the Defense Priorities and Allocation System (DPAS), are located at 15 CFR §§700 to 700.93. Since 1950, the Act has been reauthorized over 50 times. It has been periodically amended and remains in force.
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, also known as the "bank bailout of 2008" or the "Wall Street bailout", was a United States federal law enacted during the Great Recession, which created federal programs to "bail out" failing financial institutions and banks. The bill was proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, passed by the 110th United States Congress, and was signed into law by President George W. Bush. It became law as part of Public Law 110-343 on October 3, 2008. It created the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which utilized congressionally appropriated taxpayer funds to purchase toxic assets from failing banks. The funds were mostly redirected to inject capital into banks and other financial institutions while the Treasury continued to examine the usefulness of targeted asset purchases.
A lame-duck session of Congress in the United States occurs whenever one Congress meets after its successor is elected, but before the successor's term begins. The expression is now used not only for a special session called after a sine die adjournment, but also for any portion of a regular session that falls after an election. In current practice, any meeting of Congress after election day, but before the next Congress convenes the following January, is a lame-duck session. Prior to 1933, when the 20th Amendment changed the dates of the congressional term, the last regular session of Congress was always a lame-duck session.
The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 is a bill introduced in the United States Senate by Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins, and Tom Carper on June 10, 2010. The stated purpose of the bill was to increase security in cyberspace and prevent attacks which could disable infrastructure such as telecommunications or disrupt the nation's economy. The legislation would have created an Office of Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications.
Powers of the United States Congress are implemented by the United States Constitution, defined by rulings of the Supreme Court, and by its own efforts and by other factors such as history and custom. It is the chief legislative body of the United States. Some powers are explicitly defined by the Constitution and are called enumerated powers; others have been assumed to exist and are called implied powers.
Presidential reorganization authority is a term used to refer to a major statutory power that has sometimes been temporarily extended by the United States Congress to the President of the United States. It permits the president to divide, consolidate, abolish, or create agencies of the U.S. federal government by presidential directive, subject to limited legislative oversight. First granted in 1932, presidential reorganization authority has been extended to nine presidents on 16 separate occasions. As of 2024, it was most recently granted to Ronald Reagan.
Presidential Emergency Action Documents (PEADs) are draft classified executive orders, proclamations, and messages to Congress that are prepared for the President of the United States to exercise or expand powers in anticipation of a range of emergency hypothetical worst-case scenarios, so that they are ready to sign and put into effect the moment one of those scenarios comes to pass. They are defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as the "Final drafts of Presidential messages, proposed legislation proclamations, and other formal documents, including DOJ-issued cover sheets addressed to the President, to be issued in event of a Presidentially-declared national emergency."
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)