National Security

In 1994, with trade fights raging over the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization, the White House faced an urgent problem: It was about to lose most of its power to block exports for national security reasons. The decades-old law governing so-called export controls was about to expire, and Congress was making no move to renew it. So the Clinton administration took matters into its own hands: It declared a national emergency, extending its export-control powers without any new legislation. Twenty-three years and three administrations later, that national emergency still stands. Last week, entirely unremarked in the aftermath of Charlottesville, President Donald Trump extended the emergency yet again, signing a 134-word presidential notice that allows the federal government to control the export of almost every U.S. product.