WASHINGTON, July 18 — The figure that matters: four national emergencies, dating back as far as 1933, remained in effect when Congress finally moved to curb the executive’s unchecked power to freeze assets and block trade. That reckoning produced the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the law that today governs how a president can use economic sanctions during a national emergency. Enacted as Title II of Pub.
L. 95–223 on December 28, 1977, and signed by President Jimmy Carter, IEEPA is codified at Title 50, sections 1701–1707 of the U.S. Code. The law authorizes the president to regulate international commerce after declaring a national emergency.
Specifically, the president must find an “unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States” that originates “in whole or substantial part outside the United States.” Once that declaration is made, the president may block transactions and freeze assets. The bottom line for investors: a declared emergency must be renewed annually under the National Emergencies Act (NEA), and the president must report to Congress every six months on the circumstances, threats, and actions taken.
The authority does not extend to regulating communications that “does not involve a transfer of anything of value,” nor imports or exports of information or informational materials, nor transactions incidental to travel. Humanitarian donations of food, clothing, or medicine are also excluded unless the president specifically finds their inclusion necessary.
How We Got Here: TWEA to IEEPA
IEEPA was designed to clarify and restrict presidential emergency powers previously held under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA). Under TWEA, starting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, presidents could declare
Sources
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