SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2021, Issue No. 4
February 19, 2021
KEEPING AN EYE ON "NATIONAL EMERGENCIES"
Last month, in the final days of his Administration, President Trump moved to renew the "national emergency" along the US-Mexico border that he had declared in 2019.
"The ongoing border security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border of the United States continues to threaten our national security, including by exacerbating the effect of the pandemic caused by COVID–19," he told Congress on January 15.
On his first day in office, President Biden terminated that emergency, which he said had been a mistake all along.
"I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted. I have also announced that it shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end," he wrote on February 10.
But President Biden declared a new national emergency arising from the February 1 military coup in Burma. The situation in that country poses an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," he said.
Biden also renewed a 2011 declaration of national emergency concerning Libya. "We need to protect against the diversion of assets or other abuse by persons hindering Libyan national reconciliation," he wrote on February 11.
There are 38 "national emergencies" currently in effect. They typically entail blocking property and restrictions on financial activity of targeted persons. The history and scope of such emergencies were discussed by the Congressional Research Service in a report that was updated this week. See National Emergency Powers, February 16, 2021.
Although climate change is an emerging challenge and threat, it would be a mistake for the President to declare it this kind of a "national emergency," argued Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center. See "Declaring climate change an 'emergency' won't help Biden fight it," Washington Post, January 29. See also "Why President Biden Should Not Declare a Climate Emergency" by Soren Dayton and Kristy Parker, Just Security, February 10, 2021.
The Department of Defense is authorized to use unmanned aircraft systems within U.S. airspace for more than a dozen different types of operations, from search and rescue to counterintelligence.
These domestic missions, and the official guidance or legal authority behind each of them, were tabulated in a newly updated manual on military support to civilian authorities.
See Appendix 1, Table 1 in Multi-Service Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA), ATP 3-28.1, February 11, 2021.
Overall guidance on domestic use of DoD drones was provided in a 2018 memorandum issued by then-Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis that is still in effect.
"The primary purpose, and large majority, of DoD domestic UAS operations is for DoD forces to gain realistic training experience, test equipment and tactics in preparation for potential overseas warfighting missions," according to a cursory DoD website on the subject.
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
Secrecy News is archived at:
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