Emergency in United States

Emergency Definition

Any event or occasional combination of circumstances which calls for immediate action or remedy; pressing necessity; exigency. (This definition of Emergency Is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary ).

Emergency in the Federal Budget Process

Meaning of Emergency in the congressional and executive budget processes (GAO source): A term that usually modifies “appropriation,” “legislation,” or “supplemental.” Under procedures typically prescribed in concurrent resolutions on the budget, the House or the Senate, or their respective committees of jurisdiction, may designate proposed appropriations or other legislation as “emergency legislation” and thereby exempt any new budget authority, outlays, or receipts resulting from such legislation from specified enforcement provisions in the Congressional Budget Act, the concurrent resolution itself, or both. (See also Appropriations under Forms of Budget Authority under Budget Authority.)

Acts appropriating funds for national or international emergencies such as natural disasters or urgent national security events are typically designated “emergency supplemental.” (See also Supplemental Appropriation.)

Emergency meaning

At common law – unlike the continental civil law – there is no duty to rescue persons in an emergency. The only justification for that rationale is the fact that some persons may not in an emergency have the calm required to perform a rescue.

Statutes in some common law jurisdictions impose an affirmative duty to rescue or perform medical treatment on physicians and other persons employed as professional rescuers. State v. Perry, 29 Ohio App.2d 33, 278 N.E.2d 50, 53.

Voting by Individutals Impacted by an Emergency Situation

(Source: National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS))

Several states identified laws that specifically reference emergency workers and/or voters displaced by an emergency, including the following:

• In California, upon declaration of an emergency by the Governor, emergency workers away from their precinct may receive and cast a provisional ballot. In addition, also upon declaration of an emergency by the Governor, a new law authorizes special mail ballot procedures for out of state emergency workers, including email transmission of the blank ballot.
• In Louisiana, a new law requires the Secretary of State to facilitate voting by individuals working out of state in response to a declared emergency, including through fax or other means of transmitting the ballot.
• New Hampshire requires reasonable efforts be made to deliver absentee ballots to emergency workers.
• Virginia and West Virginia allow the chief election official to implement alternative/special procedures to facilitate voting by individuals impacted by an emergency situation.
• Maine has authorized the Secretary of State to administratively facilitate voting by emergency workers and individuals impacted by an emergency, including central issuance and receipt of absentee ballots.
• Oklahoma permits a voter deployed as an emergency worker within 10 days of an election to request an emergency absentee ballot.

Emergency in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias

For starting research in the law of a foreign country:

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Emergency Background

Inadequate Response to Emergency Telephone Call

This section discusses generally the subject of Inadequate Response to Emergency Telephone Call, how to determine the facts essential to Inadequate Response to Emergency Telephone Call, and, to some extent, how to prove it in litigation and defense. Related topics are also addressed.

Resources

See Also

• Federal Appropriations
• Entries about the United States Budget Process in the Encyclopedia (including Emergency)
• Public Debt
• Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control ActReaffirmation Act of 1987
• Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Actof 1985
• Absentee Voting
• Supplemental Appropriation
• Emergency Clause
• Budget Estimates
• Deficiency Apportionment

Further Reading

• Legislatures and the budget process: the myth of fiscal control (J Wehner, 2010)
• Reconcilable Differences?: Congress, the Budget Process, and the Deficit (JB Gilmour, 1990)
• Fiscal institutions and fiscal performance(JM Poterba, J von Hagen, 2008)