I want to tie in the specific powers granted to Congress with the major legislation and agencies designed to implement them.
- Click here for the text in Avalon.
- Click here for the text in the Annotated Constitution.
The Congress shall have the power
1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States:
- Tax Policy
- Trade Policy
- Defense Policy
- Welfare Policy
- Broad interpretations of "general welfare"
2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States:
- Fiscal Policy
- The Debt Ceiling
3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes:
- Regulatory Power.
- Trade Policy.
- Bretton Woods system.
- Land Policy.
- Interstate Commerce Clause.
- Broad interpretations of 'commerce"
- Indian Treaties
4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States:
- Citizenship Laws and Policy.
- Immigration Policy.
- Bankruptcy Policy.
5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures:
- Monetary Policy
- United States Mint.
- Monetary Policy.
- Federal Reserve.
- Weights and Measures.
6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States:
- Counterfeiting Policy
7. To establish post-offices and post-roads:
- Postal Service Act.
- United States Post Office Department.
- United States Postal Service.
8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries:
- Patent Act.
- Copyright Act.
- United States Patent and Trademark Office.
9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court:
- Judiciary Acts
- United States Courts.
- Business and Corporate Law
- Civil and Criminal Law
10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations:
- The Law of Piracy.
- Maritime Crimes.
- The Law of Nations.
11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water:
- Military Policy
12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years:
- Conscription
- Volunteer Forces
13. To provide and maintain a navy:
- Naval Policy
- Maritime Policy
- Sea Lanes
14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces:
- Military Regulations.
15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions:
- State Militias
16. To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress:
- Military Organization
17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings: And,
- Residence Act / national capital
- Federal Land
- Indian Wars
- Interior Department
- Bureau of Land Management
18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
- Broad interpretations of "necessary and proper"
