July 17, 2023
The Honorable Sam Graves
Chairman, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
The Honorable Rick Larsen
Ranking Member, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
The Honorable Gary Peters
Chairman, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
The Honorable Rand Paul
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Dear Representatives Graves and Larsen and Senators Peters and Paul:The undersigned 31 cross-ideological organizations, which work to safeguard andstrengthen our democratic institutions, write to urge the House Committee onTransportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security andGovernmental Affairs to advance the bipartisan and bicameral ARTICLE ONE Act (H.R.
3988/S. 1912), which would reform the National Emergencies Act of 1976 (NEA). Suchreform is critical to preventing future abuses of emergency authorities and could be themost substantial rebalancing of power between the executive branch and Congresssince the 1970s.
For the past 100 years, U.S. presidents have been able to access extraordinary powers
by virtue of declaring a national emergency — including powers to shut down
communications facilities, seize property, organize and control the means of production,
assign military forces abroad, and restrict travel. Until the 1970s, presidents were able
to invoke such emergency powers with essentially no congressional oversight and nolimit on how long a state of emergency could last.
Realizing the danger in this situation, Congress enacted the NEA to bolster its own roleand to create protections against the abuse of emergency powers. The law contained
three primary safeguards: (1) states of emergency would expire after a year unlesspresidents renewed them; (2) Congress could terminate states of emergency at anytime using a “legislative veto” (a concurrent resolution that did not require thepresident’s signature to become law); and (3) Congress was required to meet every six
months while a state of emergency was in effect to consider a vote on whether to end it.
The law also sought to facilitate congressional oversight by requiring presidents toreport every six months on expenditures made in connection with the use of emergency
powers.

The law, however, has not worked as Congress intended. The one-year expiration
period, which was supposed to be the default, has become the exception. There are
more than 40 active states of emergency that were never approved by Congress.
Additionally, in 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that the legislative veto isunconstitutional. To terminate an emergency, Congress must instead pass a joint
resolution, which becomes law only if the president signs it — or if Congress can mustera supermajority to override his veto. For over forty years, Congress simply ignored therequirement to consider a vote on existing emergencies every six months. And
presidents have similarly ignored the requirement to report to Congress on emergency
expenditures.
In the absence of meaningful statutory safeguards, we must instead rely on presidents
to exercise self-restraint in the use of these incredibly potent powers, which is far fromthe meaningful check on executive authority the NEA originally contemplated.
Fortunately, there is a way forward for Congress to recalibrate the balance of powers:
the ARTICLE ONE Act. The bill would enact the following reforms:● Every presidentially declared national emergency will automatically expire after
30 days unless Congress affirmatively votes to extend it, using expedited
procedures that will ensure timely action and prevent obstructionism. If Congress
does not extend the national emergency, the president may not, during theremainder of their term in office, declare a subsequent national emergency withrespect to the same circumstances.
● A national emergency declared by the president and approved by Congress must
be redeclared and reapproved by Congress one year after the original
declaration.
● With each proclamation declaring or renewing a national emergency, thepresident must provide a report to Congress that includes a description of thecircumstances necessitating the declaration, and estimated duration of theemergency, a summary of actions the president intends to take, and for renewals,
a summary of action taken in the past year.
● The president also must provide a report every six months on the status of theemergency and actions the president has taken to address it.
● Existing national emergencies will be subject to the same renewal requirements
outlined above.
On May 24, 2023, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on
Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management held a hearing,“Never Ending Emergencies — An Examination of the National Emergencies Act,”
where expert witnesses unanimously testified that the legal framework governing
presidential emergency powers was in urgent need of reform. A similar hearing washeld in 2022 by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. The ARTICLE
ONE Act was introduced by Senators Lee (R-UT) and Blumenthal (D-CT) andRepresentatives Roy (R-TX), Cohen (D-TN), Perry (R-PA), and Titus (D-NV) on June 9,2023, and enjoys an unusually broad range of bipartisan support in both the House andSenate. A previous version of the legislation, for instance, was reported out of theSenate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in 2019 by a vote of11-2.
In short, this is a simple, commonsense reform that will shore up Congress’s role as acheck against presidential overreach while retaining the president’s flexibility in theimmediate aftermath of an emergency. This broadly supported measure is critical to thehealth of our democracy, and we urge you to hold a markup and advance the bill assoon as possible.
Sincerely,
CC: Chairman Cole and Ranking Member McGovern, House Rules Committee

ACLU
Advocacy for Principled Action inGovernment
Americans for Prosperity
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Brennan Center for JusticeCenter for Security, Race and Rights
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics inWashington (CREW)
Clean Elections Texas
Common Cause
Defending Rights & Dissent
Democracy 21
Due Process Institute
Freedom Works
Government Information Watch
National Taxpayers Union

Niskanen Center
Oregonizers
Organization for Identity & CulturalDevelopment (OICD.net)
People Power UnitedProject On Government OversightProtect Democracy
Public Citizen
R Street InstituteSecure Elections Network
Stand Up America
Surveillance Technology Oversight
Project
Taxpayers for Common Sense
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
TechFreedom
The Digital Democracy Project
Third Way