Terms starting with "N"

National Emergency A national emergency is a formal declaration by the President that activates standby statutory powers Congress has tied to such a declaration. The National Emergencies Act of 1976 (P.L. 94-412, 50 U.S.C. §§ 1601-1651) ended the then-existing declared emergencies and set the modern procedure: the President declares an emergency by proclamation or Executive order published in the Federal Register and transmitted to Congress, and must specify the provisions of law under which the government will act. An emergency expires if the President does not renew it annually, and Congress can terminate it by an enacted joint resolution. National Government National Government is a constitutional and government-structure term used to describe public power, rights, branches of government, constitutional limits, or the relationship between federal and state authority. National Security National security refers to protecting a country, its people, territory, institutions, and vital interests from threats. It can involve defense, intelligence, diplomacy, economic policy, cybersecurity, emergency preparedness, and coordination among civilian agencies. National Security Advisor The National Security Advisor — formally the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs — is the President's chief White House adviser on national security and a statutory attendee of the National Security Council established by the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. § 3021). The advisor manages the NSC's business: determining the Council's agenda, ensuring the necessary papers are prepared, and recording Council actions and Presidential decisions, and heads the NSC staff through its Executive Secretary. The advisor is appointed by and serves the President; the office is not subject to Senate confirmation. Natural Rights Natural rights are rights that belong to people by virtue of being human, rather than rights granted by any government or law. The American founding states the idea in the Declaration of Independence: people "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," and that governments are instituted to secure those rights. The National Archives describes these as rights that "do not come from presidents, kings, or charters." Natural-Born Citizen “Natural-born Citizen” is the constitutional qualification for the U.S. presidency stated in Article II. The Constitution does not define the phrase, and its application to particular circumstances has been debated; federal statutes and historical practice are relevant but do not eliminate every interpretive question. Naturalization Naturalization is the legal process through which a person who was not a U.S. citizen at birth becomes a U.S. citizen after meeting requirements established by federal law. Requirements and procedures depend on the applicant’s circumstances and the applicable statutory provisions. National Debt The national debt is the amount of money the federal government has borrowed to cover the outstanding balance of expenses incurred over time — the accumulated total of past deficits minus surpluses. Treasury measures it as Total Public Debt Outstanding: debt held by the public plus intragovernmental holdings such as government trust fund securities, published daily in the "Debt to the Penny" dataset. Treasury notes that comparing debt to GDP is a better indicator of a country's fiscal situation than the raw number alone.