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CONGRESS
Unit Three- AB
* The National Legislature
• The Commerce Power
• Commerce is defined as the buying and selling of goods and services, and
Congress has the power to regulate interstate and foreign trade. This power,
possibly more than any other, is what is responsible for the success of the
Constitution as opposed to the Articles of Confederation
• In the Supreme Court case Gibbons vs. Ogden 1824, the court ruled that when the
State of New York, and the United States government were both regulating
steamboats, only the United States government could decide who would have the
rights to navigate internal waters.
• This ruling rejected the argument that commerce was only the buying and
selling of goods, and defined it more broadly as all of the steps in producing,
advertising, marketing and selling those goods, which the Chief Justice, John
Marshall, defined as “intercourse.”
* The National Legislature
• The Commerce Power
• The broad powers of the Commerce Clause allowed Congress to pass and establish
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in access to or service
in hotels, motels, theatres, restaurants and other public spaces on the grounds of
race, color, religion or national origin. The Supreme Court upheld this use of the
Commerce Clause when it stated that there was “overwhelming evidence of the
disruptive effect that racial discrimination has had on commercial intercourse.”
• The Supreme Court has also placed restrictions on the application of the
Commerce Clause by saying that there has to be a reasonable connection between
interstate commerce and the law. For example, in United States vs. Lopez, a
federal law called the “Gun Free School Zone Act of 1990” made it a federal crime
for anyone other than a police officer to possess a firearm in or around a school.
In this instance the court found the federal government had overstepped its
powers, and had violated the rights of the states.
• The Constitution itself places restrictions on the Congressional right to regulate
commerce in that it states that Congress cannot tax exports, favor the ports of one
state over another, or require that vessels bound to one state be obliged to enter,
clear, or pay duties in another.
* The National Legislature
• The Tax Power
• A tax is a charge levied by government on persons, or property to raise money to
meet public needs. However, Congress sometimes imposes taxes for other
purposes as well
• For example, the protective tariff, where the government taxes certain imports in
order to raise their cost above what American companies can make and sell the
same product for.
• Sometimes the government also taxes to protect the public health and safety, such
as taxes on cigarettes, liquor, and even by licensing certain activities such as
pharmacists, and teachers
• The Constitutional limits on the power of taxation include being only to tax for
public purposes, and not for private benefit, taxes can only be levied to pay for the
common defense and general welfare, and pay the debts of the United States, and
Congress may not tax exports, and direct taxes have to be apportioned amongst
the states according to their population, and all indirect taxes must be levied at
the same rate throughout the country.
* The National Legislature
• The Borrowing Power
• While the Constitution gives Congress the power to borrow money on the credit
of the United States, there is no limit on the amount they can borrow, and no
restriction on the reasons why they can borrow.
• The Department of the Treasury is who handles the actual borrowing. It does so
by issuing treasury bills for short term borrowing, and savings bonds for long term
borrowing. This is what creates the public debt, or all of the money borrowed by
the federal government, and not yet repaid, plus the accumulated interest on that
money. Usually the largest investors in these types of financial instruments are
other countries. The country that holds most of our debt currently is China.
• These securities are in effect IOU’s for which the government agrees to pay a
certain sum, plus interest, on a given date.
• Congress has set a limit to the amount of debt the United States can incur, by law,
known as the debt ceiling, however it has never amounted to more than a public
gesture as Congress regularly raises the limit whenever the debt threatens to
overtake it. Our current national debt is …………….
* The National Legislature
• The War Powers
• Six of the 27 expressed powers deal explicitly with the subject of war and national
defense, a power shared with the executive branch. However the Constitution
does give Congress extensive and substantial powers over the nation’s military and
how it is used to conduct foreign policy.
• Only Congress can declare war. It alone has the sole power to raise an army and a
navy, and to make the rules that govern them, as well as calling out the militia and
arming and organizing them, as well as disciplining them.
• The President can use military forces without Congressional authorization, or a
declaration of war, but must notify Congress within 48 hours of doing so, and can
only continue to do so for 60 days without Congressional approval of an extension.
Congress also has the “power of the purse” and can defund activities, essentially
halting the President’s abilities to continue.
* The National Legislature
• The Investigative and Oversight Powers
• Perhaps Congress most powerful weapon is their power to investigate, inquire
into, or inform itself on any matter that falls within the scope of its law making
authority.
• This authority is implied in the fact that the Constitution grants legislative power
to Congress, and without the proper knowledge, it could not effectively fulfill this
duty.
• Most often these inquiries are held to:
• Gather information necessary to the framing of legislation
• Oversee the operations of various agencies in the executive branch
• Focus public attention on some particular matter
• Expose the questionable activities of some public official or private person or
group
• Promote the particular interests of some members of Congress
* The National Legislature
• The Investigative and Oversight Powers
• To aid it in executing these powers, Congress has established three agencies within
it to ease their job, these include the
• Congressional Budget Office , commonly known as the CBO, which
committees of both chambers rely on quite heavily to define the effects of
taxing, spending, and other budget related matters
• Congressional Research Service, located in the Library of Congress, where
several hundred staff specialists provide members with factual information
on virtually any subject; and
• Government Accountability Office, or GAO, which is Congress’s watchdog
because it has broad authority to monitor the work of the Federal
government and report its findings to Congress.