FactCheck: Obama’s executive orders

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Q: Has President Barack Obama signed 900 executive orders, some of which create martial law?

A: No. Obama's executive orders do not create martial law. And so far he has signed 139 executive orders — not 900.

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Is this email accurate in stating that Obama signed the below mentioned executive order that gives the right and power to the president to impose a government takeover in a time of relative peace?

FULL ANSWER

We've received several emails that claim Obama is using his executive powers to create martial law. They're not true.

The email that states Obama has issued 900 executive orders and lists orders that previous presidents signed. The email also inaccurately describes those orders.

Another viral email cuts and pastes a constituent newsletter from Republican Rep. Kay Granger of Texas. She falsely claimed that an Obama executive order created martial law. Granger has since retracted her statements and removed the newsletter from her website.

It's true that President Obama is increasingly using his executive powers in the face of staunch Republican opposition in Congress. He's changed federal policies on immigration and welfare and appointed officials without congressional approval. But Obama's executive actions have nothing to do with martial law.

Executive orders originated under George Washington, and their use stems from interpretations of Article II of the Constitution — which created the executive branch — and from presidential precedent.

Obama has not issued 900 executive orders. He has signed slightly fewer orders than President George W. Bush during this point in his first term, according to the University of California, Santa Barbara, which tracks executive orders. Obama has issued 139 executive orders as of Sept. 25. (The U.C. website listed 138 orders on Sept. 25, the same day Obama signed order 139). Bush issued 160 executive orders through Sept. 20, 2004, a comparable amount of time.

The viral email that claims Obama has signed 900 executive orders lists 13 orders as evidence, all of which previous presidents signed in the 1960s and 1970s.

Presidents number their executive orders consecutively. The first executive order that President Obama signed was EO-13489, which dealt with presidential records. Obama's predecessors signed any executive order with a number lower than 13489.

The first executive order the email lists and attributes to Obama is 10990, which John F. Kennedy signed in 1962. The order reestablished a council to oversee safety of civilian federal employees. It did not — as the email claims — allow a government takeover of the nation's seaports, highways and other modes of transportation.

Gerald Ford signed the last executive order listed, 11921, which updated how various federal departments and agencies prepare and respond to national emergencies. For example, the order tasked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with a plan to protect the fishing industry.

Granger, the Texas congresswoman, made false claims about an executive order that Obama actually signed in March. Writing in a constituent newsletter, Granger claimed that Obama's "National Defense Resources Preparedness" order amounted to martial law, adding that it was "unprecedented" and "above the law" and lacked congressional oversight.

The order was none of those things — and Granger said as much in a subsequent statement. Since the Korean War, Congress has granted the president the authority to ensure that national resources — such as the food supply and various industries — will be available to meet national security needs in times of war and other emergencies. That power is granted under the Defense Production Act, a law that dates to 1950 and must be reauthorized by Congress every few years. (The act expires in 2014.)

Like presidents before him, Obama issued an order updating the resources covered under that act, which allows presidents to delegate authority to various federal departments and agencies. For example, Obama's order authorizes the secretaries of Defense and the Interior "to encourage the exploration, development, and mining of strategic and critical materials and other materials."

President Bill Clinton issued a similar executive order in 1994. Some people misunderstood that order as well, prompting the Congressional Research Service to write that Clinton's order "has nothing whatever to do with declarations of martial law. It has no effect at all on continued powers of Congress or the federal courts during periods of war or other national emergencies."

Granger removed the newsletter from her website. And she took back almost all of her claims in an April 30 newsletter "clarifying" her position.

It's true, however, that Obama is employing his executive powers now more than ever before during his presidency.

Obama has been sidestepping Congress through his "We Can't Wait" initiative, a series of executive actions that he claims benefit the middle class through infrastructure projects and economic policy changes.

He also skirted Senate approval in January when he appointed nominees to the National Labor Relations Board and to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The appointments were unprecedented because he made them when the Senate was technically not in recess, prompting legal challenges from conservative groups.

In June, the president halted deportations of illegal immigrants who entered the United States when they were children and met certain requirements, such as the lack of a criminal record. The change mirrored provisions of the DREAM Act — failed legislation that Obama supported and Senate Republicans blocked in 2010.

And in July, Obama changed welfare policy to allow states to modify work requirements if they test new approaches to increasing employment. Obama did not submit the policy change to Congress for review, which the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office concluded he should have done.

Obama's use of executive power is not unprecedented compared with previous presidents, however. George W. Bush signed several controversial "signing statements" that claimed he had the power to disregard certain provisions of a law, a presidential action that historians trace back to James Monroe.

Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute wrote to us in an email that Obama "does not hesitate to use executive authority, but he is well within the mainstream of his modern predecessors."