President Donald Trump is exploiting a massive loophole to unilaterally make significant policy decisions with no input from Congress. Now, one conservative is calling on Congress to close that loophole.
In posts to his X account on Monday, economist Scott Lincicome — who is the vice president of general economics at the conservative Cato Institute – pointed out that presidents have "over 130 standby statutory powers" that can be invoked "in a self‐declared national emergency" with the stroke of a pen. Lincicome linked to a 2024 U.S. Senate testimony from Cato's Gene Healy (who is the organization's former vice president of policy) entitled "Restoring Congressional Oversight over Emergency Powers," in which Healy warned senators of the "truly breathtaking" scope of presidents' emergency powers.
One key point of Healy's testimony focused on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), which Trump has cited as the legal basis to unilaterally impose tariffs on virtually all of the United States' trading partners. Healy told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government that the IEEPA "represents one of the broadest delegations of power — and thus, one of the broadest potential sources of presidential mischief."
"IEEPA gives the president an imposing array of unilateral powers to deploy against 'any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States,'" Healy said. "Once triggered, the executive branch enjoys sweeping authority to block transactions, freeze assets and seize property."
Lincicome highlighted Healy's testimony to argue that many of Trump's controversial decisions could have been prevented had Congress taken action to rein in presidential emergency powers.
"One of the most frustrating parts of the Trump 2.0 era is that we KNEW about these legal landmines years ago, we WARNED about the potential for abuse (and resulting harms), and Congress/POTUS — regardless of the party in charge — did NOTHING," he wrote on X.
One potential fix Healy highlighted in his 2024 testimony was legislation written by former Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), that would have established law that the IEEPA "does not include the authority to impose duties or tariff-rate quotas or… other quotas on articles entering the United States." However, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is expected to issue a ruling in its current term on whether to uphold or reverse a decision by lower courts that Trump does not have the authority to levy tariffs under the IEEPA. Should SCOTUS uphold the prior rulings, it would strike down a bulk of Trump's tariffs on imported goods.
