Our Government:
The Legislative Branch
Tiara Abrams
American Government
Mr. DiCurcio
6 December 2010
Outline
THESIS: The Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate which forms the United States Congress; the Constitution grants Congress the single authority to pass legislation and declare war, the right to approve or reject Presidential appointments, and significant investigative powers. I. What is the Legislative Branch?
A. It includes the House of Representatives and the Senate (Congress).
B. The requirements for both chambers.
C. It makes the laws. II. The Legislative Process
A. The first step in the legislative process is the introduction of a bill to Congress.
B. A bill must pass through
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Implied Powers are powers not listed in the Constitution. They come from and depend on expressed powers of the government. The basis for implied powers comes from the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8. Another name for implied powers is called the elastic clause because it stretches the power of the government. Implied powers have helped the government enhance its authority to meet the many problems and situations that the Framers unseen. Expressed Powers are those powers explicitly named in the Constitution. They grant the legislative branch a large amount of authority over American national policy, both domestic and foreign. The Constitution states that the Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, imposts, duties, excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all imposts, duties, and excises shall be uniformed throughout the United States (Brady). There are a total of 27 expressed powers listed in the Constitution. Congress retains a number of special powers. It can act as a judicial body to impeach and try a president or other civil officer for misconduct. For example, the House of Representatives impeaches the official and Senate does a trial. Congress is also empowered to create and use administrative agencies and boards, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to determine facts and to enforce its
Our Legislative branch of government has many powers granted and denied/outlined by our Constitution. These powers include (but are not
National government has two types of powers expressed powers and implied. Expressed powers are powers explicitly stated in the Constitution and Implied powers are powers mainly “suggestions” or a follow up of the expressed powers. However, both the national
Article one section 8 list the expressed powers of Congress. Some of these expressed powers included were “The power to establish rules to allow foreign-born immigrants to become citizens of the United States”,”The power to organize all federal courts below the Supreme Court”,”The power to make rules to regulate the conduct of the armed forces”,”The power to call out the militia to defend the country from invasions or insurrections”,”The power to acquire lands from the states for use by the federal government”,”The power to "make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing powers...."(Article one section 8 of the constitution).
The enumerated powers are specific powers in Article one section eight of the US Constitution that provides an outline of the limitations of the Congress and Federal government. The powers stated in the Constitution for Congress include; the power to lay and collect taxes, borrow money on the credit of the US, regulate commerce with foreign nations etc.(pp.186). This issuance of delegated powers was established to limit the federal governments control of the people. The necessary and proper clause/ elastic clause was supplementary to guarantee that the government had the approval to deal with any important matters in implementing the other enumerated powers as they came about (pp.186). The founders of the Constitution were aware that it would be a daunting task to mention every power that the government would need as America advanced. This in turn brought about the Necessary and Proper clause at the end of the enumerated powers list (pp.186). The elastic clause essentially gives the government the opportunity to expand further than its outlined authority. Implied powers is the ability of Congress to pass the laws to implement the enumerated powers specific to the federal government (pp.81). Although these implied powers are not addressed in the Constitution they are presumed to be in place if deemed necessary. The main difference between the enumerated powers and
Implied Powers It is known that the United States government has powers not written specifically in the Constitution, but how is the government granted these powers? These powers are called Implied powers which are powers not listed in the Constitution, but are affiliated with those powers that are written in the Constitution (75). The implied powers concept has helped enhance the power of the federal government by allowing the federal government to further enforce states and citizens. There have been several conflicts that have lead to well known supreme court cases which have revolved around the concept of implied powers.
Congress is bicameral- having two houses. The House of Representatives and the Senate are the two houses in Congress. The main job of Congress is to make laws. Ways Congress can check the other branches are by; overriding a presidential veto, impeaching judges, and impeaching presidents. Congress seems like one of the more powerful branches, because they can override vetoes, and impeach
Some of the powers of the president include constitutional powers, which are powers that are set forth by the U.S. constitution, statutory powers, which give the president the ability to declare national emergencies. Both the constitutional and statutory powers make up the expressed powers of the president, because they are written in the Constitution.
Not exclusively does the government have express powers under the U.S. Constitution, it likewise has inferred powers, or powers not particularly specified in the
The first set of powers is Enumerated powers, that were processed by the Constitution of the United States belong only to the Federal government. Basically, it can control almost everything. For instance, the Federal government could regulate trade, this means that the Federal government could choose with which Colonies could trade and with which Colonies could not. Another power is coin money, this means that the Government have the authority to make money just for improve the economy and if the Government has something to support it. As well the provide army and navy, this could be necessary if a war is provoked and with this, the United States could defend itself. Conduct foreign affairs is another of their powers, with this power could
They have the power to override a president’s decision, stop laws from being passed, and basically control all decisions the governments makes. The legislative branch, also called the congress, consists of the House of Representatives and the senate. The reason for two houses of congress is to balance out the concerns of smaller but more populated states against states that are larger but with less population (www.Usgovinfo.com). The
The implied powers that Congress also possess, were granted with this clause as a basis, these implied powers are required for Congress to execute the enumerated powers. Some examples include, the power to collect and levy taxes and revenue, the authority to also regulate currency and its value, as well as coining money. Without these specific powers, our government doesn’t have the authority or power to charter a bank, regulate the national currency or the power to tax. The enumerated powers were clearly expanded with the inclusion of the implied powers. (Janda, Berry, & Goldman, 2012) One of the basic principles of our Constitution,
This clause was created to give the Congress powers to do everything that is considered as necessary and important. With this clause, Congress can create laws and have power to make actions in situations where the Constitution does not give permission to act. The clause is also called the Elastic Clause. The draft of this clause brought disputes between anti-federalists, who believed that the clause would give government too much power, and federalists, who assumed that the clause is just a permission to act given by the Constitution.
Which is granted all legislative powers in The Constitution of the United States article I section 1. Senate has the power to ratify treaties, try impeachments, and approve cabinet members, Justice of the Supreme Court, and ambassadors. The House of Representatives has the power to impeach the president and originate all revenue bills. An example of the House of Representatives using their power on February 20th of 2015 they introduced a bill revenue called Marijuana Tax Revenue Act of 2015. Which established that anyone who takes part in a marijuana enterprise must have a permit to be able to engage in the enterprise. This shows how they use their legislative power to then have laws that local governments to obtain and gives them power to enforce
The Legislative branch is made up of the two houses of congress. The houses are the senate and the House of Representatives. The goal of the legislative branch is to make laws. Also there are a total of 100 senators, and each state gets two.
Going back to, The Legislative Branch handles bills and impeachments. It is composed of two parts, The House Representatives and a Senate. The Senate is group that creates the bills and handles the ones that are wanted by the people. The House is the group that votes on the bills.