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R45618 — The International Emergency Economic Powers Act: Origins, Evolution, and Use

Reports · published 2025-09-01 · v15 · Active · crsreports.congress.gov ↗

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Authors
Liana W. Rosen · Jennifer K. Elsea · Christopher A. Casey
Report id
R45618
Summary

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) provides the President broad authority to regulate a variety of economic transactions following a declaration of national emergency. IEEPA, like the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) from which it branched, sits at the center of the modern U.S. sanctions regime. Changes in the use of IEEPA powers since the act’s enactment in 1977, including its use to impose tariffs on imports from almost all countries in 2025, have caused some Members of Congress and policy analysts to question whether the statute’s oversight provisions are robust enough given the sweeping economic powers it confers upon the President during a declared emergency. Over the course of the twentieth century, Congress delegated increasing amounts of emergency power to the President by statute. TWEA was one such statute. Congress passed TWEA in 1917 to regulate international transactions with enemy powers following the entry of the United States into the First World War. Congress expanded the act during the 1930s to allow the President to declare a national emergency in times of peace and assume sweeping powers over both domestic and international transactions. Between 1945 and the early 1970s, TWEA became the central means to impose sanctions as part of U.S. Cold War strategy. Presidents used TWEA to block international financial transactions, seize U.S.-based assets held by foreign nationals, restrict exports, modify regulations to deter the hoarding of gold, and limit foreign direct investment in U.S. companies. In addition, when a temporary tariff the President had imposed on all imports into the United States was challenged in federal court, the government argued that TWEA provided legal authority for the President’s action. Following committee investigations that discovered that the United States had been in a state of emergency for more than 40 years, Congress passed the National Emergencies Act (NEA) in 1976 and IEEPA in 1977. The pair of statutes placed new limits on presidential emergency powers. Both included reporting requirements to increase transparency and track costs, and the NEA required the President to assess annually and extend, if appropriate, an emergency. Some experts argue that renewal process has become pro forma. The NEA also afforded Congress the means to terminate a national emergency by adopting a concurrent resolution in each chamber. A decision by the Supreme Court, in a landmark case, however, found the use of concurrent resolutions to terminate an executive action unconstitutional. Concerned about the termination provisions in the NEA, Congress amended the statute to require a joint resolution, significantly increasing the difficulty of terminating an emergency. Like TWEA, IEEPA has become an important means to impose economic-based sanctions since its enactment; like TWEA, Presidents have frequently used IEEPA to restrict a variety of international transactions; and like TWEA, the subjects of the restrictions, the frequency of use, and the duration of emergencies have expanded over time. Initially, Presidents used IEEPA to target foreign states or their governments. Over the years, presidential Administrations have increasingly used IEEPA to target non-state individuals and groups, such as terrorists, persons who engage in malicious cyber-enabled activities, and certain persons associated with the International Criminal Court. As of September 1, 2025, Presidents had declared 77 national emergencies invoking IEEPA, 46 of which are ongoing. National emergencies invoking IEEPA often last nearly a decade, although some have lasted significantly longer—the first state of emergency declared under the NEA and IEEPA, which was declared in response to the taking of U.S. embassy staff as hostages by Iran in 1979, is in its fifth decade. IEEPA grants sweeping powers to the President to control economic transactions. Despite these broad powers, until 2023, Congress had never attempted to terminate a national emergency invoking IEEPA. Instead, Congress has directed the President on numerous occasions to use IEEPA authorities to impose sanctions. Congress may want to consider whether IEEPA appropriately balances the need for swift action in a time of crisis with Congress’s duty to oversee executive action. Congress may also want to consider IEEPA’s role in implementing congressional influence in U.S. foreign policy and national security decision making.

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