International Emergency Economic Powers Act

Long title	An Act with respect to the powers of the President in time of war or national emergency.
Acronyms (colloquial)	IEEPA
Enacted by	the 95th United States Congress
Effective	December 28, 1977
Citations
Public law	95-223
Statutes at Large	91 Stat. 1625
Codification
Titles amended	50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense
U.S.C. sections created	50 U.S.C. ch. 35 § 1701 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 7738 by Jonathan B. Bingham (D-NY) on June 13, 1977 Committee consideration by House Foreign Affairs, Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Passed the House on July 12, 1977 (passed) Passed the Senate on October 11, 1977 (passed) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on November 30, 1977 (agreed) with further amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on December 7, 1977 (agreed) Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on December 28, 1977
United States Supreme Court cases
Dames & Moore v. Regan

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Title II of Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 95–223, 91 Stat. 1626, enacted October 28, 1977, is a United States federal law authorizing the president to regulate international commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States.^[1]

The H.R. 7738 legislation was signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 28, 1977.^[2]

Provisions

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International Emergency Economic Powers Act

In the United States Code, the IEEPA is Title 50, §§1701–1707.^[3] The IEEPA authorizes the president to declare the existence of 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."^[4] It further authorizes the president, after such a declaration, to block transactions and freeze assets to deal with the threat.^[5] In the event of an actual attack on the United States, the president can also confiscate property connected with a country, group, or person that aided in the attack.^[6]

The IEEPA falls under the provisions of the National Emergencies Act (NEA), which means that an emergency declared under the act must be renewed annually to remain in effect.

History

Curtailment of emergency executive powers

Congress enacted the IEEPA in 1977 to clarify and restrict presidential power during times of declared national emergency under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 ("TWEA"). Under TWEA, starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, presidents had the power to declare emergencies without limiting their scope or duration, without citing the relevant statutes, and without congressional oversight.^[7] The Supreme Court in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer limited what a president could do in such an emergency, but did not limit the emergency declaration power itself. A 1973 Senate investigation found (in Senate Report 93-549) that four declared emergencies remained in effect: the 1933 banking crisis with respect to the hoarding of gold,^[8] a 1950 emergency with respect to the Korean War,^[9] a 1970 emergency regarding the postal workers strike, and a 1971 emergency in response to the government's deteriorating economic and fiscal conditions.^[10] Congress terminated these emergencies with the National Emergencies Act, and then passed the IEEPA to restore the emergency power in a limited, overseeable form.

Unlike TWEA, IEEPA was drafted to permit presidential emergency declarations only in response to threats originating outside the United States.^[11] Beginning with Jimmy Carter in response to the Iran Hostage Crisis, presidents have invoked IEEPA to safeguard U.S. national security interests by freezing or "blocking" assets of belligerent foreign governments,^[12] or certain foreign nationals abroad.^[13]

Since 9/11

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13224 under IEEPA to block the assets of terrorist organizations.^[14] The President delegated blocking authority to federal agencies led by the U.S. Treasury. In October 2001, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act which, in part, enhanced IEEPA asset blocking provisions under §1702(a)(1)(B) to permit the blocking of assets during the "pendency of an investigation." This statutory change gave the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control the power to block assets without the need to provide evidence of the blocking subject's wrongdoing nor to permit the blocking subject a chance to effectively respond to the allegations in court.^[15] Executing these blocking actions led to a series of legal cases challenging federal authority to indefinitely prevent charitable organizations from accessing their assets held in the United States.^[16]

On May 30, 2019, the White House announced that President Donald Trump would use IEEPA powers to introduce tariffs on Mexican exports in response to the national security threat of illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States.^[17]

As part of an ongoing trade war with China, on August 24, 2019, Trump tweeted that he “hereby ordered” US companies to start looking at alternatives to China on the basis of claimed powers under IEEPA.^[18][19] Trump, however, did not formally declare an emergency as required by IEEPA.

Litigation

Notable cases

• Dames & Moore v. Regan
• KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development v. Geithner^[20]

Violations

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• Man arrested for broadcasting Hezbollah television in New York

• In 1983, financier Marc Rich was accused of violating the act by trading in Iranian oil during the Iran hostage crisis. He was one of many people pardoned by President Bill Clinton in his last days in office.^[21]
• On August 23, 2006, Javed Iqbal was arrested through the U.S. Department of the Treasury with a charge of conspiracy to violate the IEEPA for airing material produced by al-Manar (The Beacon) in New York City during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.^[22]
• On December 16, 2009, it was announced that the U.S. Dept. of Justice reached a settlement with Credit Suisse over accusations that the bank assisted residents of IEEPA sanctioned countries to wire money in violation of the Act from 1995 to 2006. The settlement resulted in Credit Suisse forfeiting $536 million.^[23]
• On July 16, 2020, a UAE-based firm, Essentra FZE Company Limited, admitted of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and defying the United States sanctions on North Korea. The firm also agreed to pay a fine of $665,112 to the United States Department of Justice.^[24]

List of emergencies

Current

As of 2019^[update], the following IEEPA emergencies are active.^[25]

Past

• Afghanistan (1999–2002 for harboring al-Qaeda)
• Côte d'Ivoire (2006–2016 regarding the First Ivorian Civil War)
• Haiti (1991–1994)
• Iraq (1990–2004 for invading Kuwait)
• Kuwait (1990–1991, while occupied by Iraq)
• Liberia (2001–2015 directed against President Charles G. Taylor)
• Libya (1986–2004 for sponsoring terrorism)
• Myanmar (1997–2016 against the policies of the military government)
• Nicaragua (1985–1990 for aggressive activities in Central America)
• Panama (1988–1990 for military coup by Manuel Noriega)
• Russia (2000–2012 to support the Megatons to Megawatts Program)
• Serbia and Montenegro (1992–2003 for sponsoring Serb nationalist groups)
• Sierra Leone (2001–2004 for human rights violations)
• South Africa (1985–1991 for maintaining apartheid)
• UNITA (1993–2003 for interfering with UN peacekeeping efforts)