Enumerated Powers Act

Examples of Enumerated Powers Act in the following topics:

• Oversight

  • Oversight of various federal agencies is one of Congress' enumerated powers.
  • Although the Constitution grants no formal, express authority to oversee or investigate the executive or program administration, oversight is implied in Congress's array of enumerated powers.
  • Reinforcing these powers is Congress's broad authority to make all laws that will be necessary to carry out execution the foregoing powers, all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government, or in any Department or Officer in the government.
  • The authority to oversee is derived from these constitutional powers.
  • For example, the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, requires agencies to consult with Congress on their strategic plans and report annually on performance plans, goals, and results.

• Delegated Powers

  • The delegated powers, also called enumerated powers, are a list of items found in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S.
  • There is a difference of opinion in the political arena on whether current interpretation of enumerated powers, as exercised by Congress, is constitutionally sound.
  • Strict constructionists often reference a statement on the enumerated powers set forth by Chief Justice Marshall in the case McCulloch v.
  • Strict constructionists interpret the clause to mean that Congress may make a law only if the inability to do so would cripple its ability to apply one of its enumerated powers.
  • John Marshall's writing about enumerated powers in McCullogh v.

• Early U.S. Supreme Court Decisions

  • Maryland, established the rights of power between federal and state governments.
  • On April 8, 1916, Congress passed an act providing the incorporation of the Second Bank of the US.
  • On February 11, 1818, the General Assembly of Maryland passed an act placing a tax on all banks not chartered by the legislature.
  • Third, Marshall admitted that the Constitution does not enumerate a power to create a central bank but that this is not dispositive to Congress' power to establish such an institution.
  • Fourth, he invoked the Necessary and Proper Clause, permitting Congress to seek an objective within its enumerated power so long as it is rationally related to the objective and not forbidden by the Constitution.

• The 16th Amendment

  • The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

• Congress

  • Two constitutional clauses, the Constitution and Foreign Commerce Clause and the War Power Clause, give Congress foreign policy powers.
  • Perhaps the most important powers are in the War Power Clause which was given to Congress in the Constitution and Foreign Commerce Clause.
  • This clause provides Congress with the power to regulate commerce overseas.
  • The Commerce Clause in the Constitution also give Congress the power to regulate trade between nations.
  • The Commerce Clause is an enumerated list in the United States Constitution.

• The Legislative Function

  • However, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers.
  • Congress has implied powers deriving from the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause which permit Congress 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 this clause and of the Commerce Clause, the enumerated power to regulate commerce, in rulings such as McCulloch v Maryland have effectively widened the scope of Congress's legislative authority far beyond that prescribed in Section 8.
  • There have been charges that presidents acting under the doctrine of the unitary executive have assumed important legislative and budgetary powers that should belong to Congress.
  • Committees have power and have been called 'independent fiefdoms'.
  • Differentiate between the powers granted by the Constitution to the House and Senate

• Investigation

  • Congress exercises this power largely through its congressional committee system.
  • Oversight is an implied rather than an enumerated power under the U.S.
  • Although the Constitution grants no formal, express authority to oversee or investigate the executive or program administration, oversight is implied in Congress's array of enumerated powers.
  • Reinforcing these powers is Congress's broad authority "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."
  • Although the Constitution grants no formal, express authority to oversee or investigate the executive or program administration, oversight is implied in Congress's array of enumerated powers.

• Defending the Nation

  • Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of Congress, which is the legislative branch of the federal government.
  • More importantly, it establishes limits on the powers of Congress as well as the states.
  • Section Eight gives Congress certain broad enumerated powers.
  • Among these are the power to lay and collect taxes and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; to borrow money on the credit of the United States; and to regulate interstate, foreign, and Indian commerce.
  • This department is a federal executive department, acting as the principal organ by which military policy is carried out.

• Powers Denied to Congress

  • Congress has numerous prohibited powers dealing with habeas corpus, regulation of commerce, titles of nobility, ex post facto and taxes.
  • Constitution provided limits on Congressional powers.
  • No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
  • Recall the limits placed on Congressional power by Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution

• The Constitutional Convention

  • This committee helped work out a compromise: In exchange for this concession, the federal government's power to regulate foreign commerce would be strengthened by provisions that allowed for taxation of slave trades in the international market and that reduced the requirement for passage of navigation acts from two-thirds majorities of both houses of Congress to simple majority.
  • The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the enumerated population of slaves would be counted for representation purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives.