Carter signs IEEPA, giving presidents broad emergency power to impose economic sanctions

President Jimmy Carter signed the International Emergency Economic Powers Act into law on December 28, 1977, replacing the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 as the primary legal authority for peacetime economic sanctions. IEEPA authorized the president to declare a national emergency to regulate international financial transactions whenever a foreign threat to the United States existed. Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal immediately identified IEEPA as the foundation for a new generation of targeted sanctions programs.