Chairman Peters' Opening Statement: Restoring Congressional Oversight Over Emergency Powers

when a uh crisis uh unfolds our government needs to be able to respond quickly whether it's a pandemic extreme weather or a foreign attack we must be ready to protect the safety and the security of our citizens in order to act quickly when disaster strike Congress has given the president broad emergency Powers most emergency Powers have never been used but they could potentially bring sweeping chain es to our government to our economy and Society these Powers could allow the government to take over communication channels control Transportation Systems halt trade with other countries and more without an appropriate check from Congress there is a risk that these Powers could be misused or abused and that's why Congress passed the national emergencies act in 1976 this legislation gave congress the power to conduct oversight over these Powers including a mechanism to quickly end a national emergency but after 1983 Supreme Court decision the national emergencies act had to be amended and the mechanism for Congress to end a National Emergency was weakened it now requires a veto proof 2third majority in both chambers of Congress in other words there is a imbalance of power it is easy for a president to declare a national emergency but very hard for Congress to end one we've seen presidents of both parties increasingly use emergency powers in cases like the covid-19 pandemic this was necessary to protect our economy and Public Health in other cases recent presidents have used emergency powers to attempt to advance their policy goals often in areas where Congress should be providing input as well as oversight reforming the national emergencies Act is not about the policy goals of either party it's about strengthening our democracy and ensuring Congress maintains the responsibility to oversee executive power we have had bipartisan support for this reform in the past and I'm hopeful that we can build on that progress and I'm looking forward to considering legislative options that can advance this in committee this Congress we must examine how we use our current national emergency power authorities and ensure that Congress can effectively oversee emergencies today's hearing and our panel of expert witnesses will help us do that and I look forward to the discussion