Trump Says War on Terror Remains Emergency, Challenging Congress

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump extended emergency powers enacted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a declaration that’s become routine but faces greater scrutiny from Congress in the 19th year of the war on terror.

There are more than 30 national emergencies now in effect, and it’s usually unremarkable when the president renews one.

But lawmakers have begun to reassert their oversight of presidential powers following Trump’s declaration of an emergency on the southern border on Feb. 15. Trump said the move allowed him to shift Pentagon funds to construction of his signature wall without congressional approval, outraging many Democrats.

Senator Mike Lee, a Republican of Utah, has introduced the Article One Act, which would take presidential emergency powers off auto-pilot. Instead of allowing the president to renew emergencies every year, each emergency would expire after 30 days unless Congress confirms it by joint resolution.

The power Trump renewed on Thursday dates to the national crisis that followed the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Three days after the 2001 attacks, President George W. Bush signed an order giving himself sweeping powers to mobilize the military. That order, designated Proclamation 7463, allowed him to call up National Guard and Reserve troops, hire and fire military officers, and bypass limits on the number of active generals.

The order must be renewed every year, or the president’s emergency powers lapse.

The National Emergencies Act, a post-Watergate reform, allows Congress to cancel the emergency. But Congress has shown little interest in oversight of the declarations to date.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Korte in Houston at gkorte@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Alex Wayne, Justin Blum

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