Most Americans are unaware that at the stroke of a pen, at the onset of a national emergency, their lifestyle could be drastically altered. Presidential executive orders on the books today grant sweeping power to one man to authorize that change.
During the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he issued the infamous Executive Order 9066, granting the authority to imprison Japanese-Americans during World War II. At the stroke of a pen, Americans were rounded up and placed into camps.
The concentration of power into the hands of one branch of Government was never intended by the founders of this nation. James Madison declared the centralization of executive and legislative power in the same branch of government ‘’the very definition of tyranny.”. The bedrock of our republic—the separation of powers, checks and balances —have been compromised by the abuse of presidential executive orders.
The prepared statement of Hon. George Gekas, Congressman from Pennsylvania and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, explained, “Executive orders are the best known way that the President makes official statements about how the Executive Branch of the federal government is run.”
Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia further expounded on the purpose and foundation of executive orders: “Presidents have used executive orders throughout our history, beginning with George Washington. Those early executive orders were nothing more than internal memoranda, through which the President communicated with staff and department heads, detailing how the Executive branch would implement a new law or regulation.” Congressman Barr also reminded the subcommittee, “The seminal case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube in 1952 laid out very, very broad, but very relevant language, saying in essence that, ‘’the President’s power for the executive order must arise either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself.”
Executive orders were nothing more than internal memos on how the branch would function. They were not put in place to dictate policy or to enact law while bypassing Congress.
During the October 1999 subcommittee hearing on the limitation of executive orders, the power of the president was called into question. Abusive orders had been penned by numerous presidents without congressional oversight. To curb this, Congressman Barr drafted legislation to introduce new oversight. His bill, H.R. 3131, the ‘’Presidential Order Limitation Act of 1999’‘ states in Section 3 that the president shall transmit executive orders to congress for review. This would reign in modern presidential abuses of executive orders and return a system of checks and balances to government.
However, section 3 (c) of H.R. 3131 should be revised to create an emergency oversight board to review, approve, expand, or edit an executive order in the event a run away president would act in the face of another false flag terror event or self-induced pandemic without the oversight of congress.
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas weighed in on the separation of power at the subcommittee, “We were all taught very early in our years about the separations of powers and why that was unique for our government, and we were taught, and I strongly believe this, it is a very good part of our Constitution. I think history has shown, especially in the 20th century, that it has essentially been eliminated or severely eroded. “
Congressman Paul introduced a bill similar to H.R. 3131, “The Separation of Powers Restoration Act”, to limit a sitting president from drafting abusive executive orders. The introductory text of H.R. 2655 of the 106th congress states it“is designed to restore the separation of powers between Congress and the president as set forth in Article I and Article 11 of the Constitution of the United States of America by: (1) terminating all existing states of national emergency and removing from the executive branch any power to declare national emergencies; (2) vesting power in Congress alone to declare states of national emergency; (3) restricting presidential power to issue executive orders by denying to them any force of law except as provided for by Congress; and (4) repealing the War Powers Resolution of 1973.”
The congressional power of these two bills would drastically reduce the introduction of executive orders outside the scope of presidential administrative memos, restore the separation of powers and grant Congress the sole authority to declare a state of emergency. If these bills passed, millions of Americans who have lost faith in our system of government would regain peace of mind.
It is imperative that these two bills, H.R. 3131 and H.R. 2655, be reintroduced to congress, and the proper public awareness media campaigns are developed. Alongside the introduction of the bills mentioned in this article, the following Executive Orders must be rescinded:
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990: allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995: allows the government to seize and control the communication media.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997: allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998: allows the government to seize all means of transportation, including personal cars, trucks or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports, and waterways.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10999: allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000: allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001: allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002: calls for the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003: allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004: allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005: allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051: specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.
•EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310: grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049: assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen year period.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921: allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institutions in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months.
It is terrifying to know that one man can declare a state of emergency, without Congressional oversight for 6 months, and enact any of these executive orders. As it stands the President of the United States is the only one with this authority. Our founding fathers knew of the abuses of concentrated power as they were victims of a tyrannical crown. Because of a lack of constitutionally minded congressmen and an uninformed public, these orders are written while America sleeps. “Elected” officials have been left unchecked for far too long and have taken advantage of the people by incrementally eroding civil liberties.
Congressman Paul echoed these sentiments at the subcommittee meeting, “At the heart of the Constitution of the United States of America is the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers. James Madison, the father of our constitution, wrote in Federalist 47, ‘’there can be no liberty’‘ when those powers are united in one ‘’person or body of magistrates.’‘ Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis echoed this view in 1926 when he observed that separation of powers was written into our constitution ‘’to save the people from autocracy.’‘ Yet, throughout most of the 20th century, presidents have usurped legislative power by means of unconstitutional executive orders, presidential proclamations and undeclared wars. For too long, Congress has stood silent and, worse yet, aided and abetted these usurpations through legislation granting broad powers to the president. Only by repealing those statutes and by placing express limits on presidential power will such constitutional abuses be stopped.”
We The People are the ones who grant authority to our representatives to act on our behalf. If we do not effectively communicate these abuses to them, and the boot heel of tyranny becomes too heavy upon our throats, I fear the American people will rise up and overthrow those in power who seek to enslave us. While Jefferson endorsed the tree of liberty to be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots from time to time, we still have a representative congress to appeal our observations of abuse to. It is our duty to apply the utmost amount of pressure on our “elected” officials to make our point absolutely clear until they act on our demands. Otherwise the people will remove them from office. The halls of power are not in Washington DC or in the state houses across the land. The halls of power are the place you tread daily, your home.
When Roosevelt granted authority to round up Americans during World War II, he committed the most egregious sin against the people and should have been tried and convicted for such an act. The president who currently sits in power now has more executive authority than Roosevelt could have ever dreamed of exerting upon the people.
In a world where Roosevelt’s words, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself ” have been replaced with “Fear everyone because they may be a terrorist,” and the hair trigger response to “acts of terror” are to introduce legislation that limits our freedoms, checks and balances and separation of power are the only thing that stands in the middle of a President whom wields the consolidated authority the founders were set against.
Reintroduce H.R. 3131 and H.R. 2655, rescind the above executive orders, and do not stop pressuring your congressman. If they don’t listen, then you need to run for their seat.
- Overview and summary of H.R. 2655 can be found at:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h106-2655
- Overview and summary of H.R. 3131 can be found at:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h106-3131
- Text of Hearing on Congressional Limitation Executive
Orders can be found at: http://commdocs.house.gov/
committees/judiciary/hju63865.000/hju63865_0.htm
By Gary Frachi
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