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One congressional power is oversight of other branches of the government. In the early 1970s, the Senate investigated the activities of President Richard Nixon regarding Watergate which led to the president's resignation. One of the foremost legislative functions of the Congress is the power to investigate and to oversee the executive branch.
Lopez [7] in 1995 held unconstitutional the Gun Free School Zone Act because it exceeded the power of Congress to "regulate commerce...among the several states". Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote, "We start with first principles. The Constitution creates a Federal Government of enumerated powers." For the first time in sixty years the Court ...
The power of the purse is the ability of one group to control the actions of another group by withholding funding, or putting stipulations on the use of funds. The power of the purse can be used positively (e.g. awarding extra funding to programs that reach certain benchmarks) or negatively (e.g. removing funding for a department or program, effectively eliminating it).
The Congress may create and charter, through the enactment of statutes, corporate bodies (Federal Corporations) which can be granted (through the Congress' plenary power to legislate) derivative (derived from the legislation, as opposed to the Constitution itself) plenary power(s) in areas that are defined by statute and which comport with the constitution.
Besides these general powers, numerous statutes direct the executive to furnish information to or consult with Congress. For example, the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-62) requires agencies to consult with Congress on their strategic plans and report annually on performance plans, goals, and results.
This segment of the series on the U.S. Constitution discusses the powers delegated to Congress from making its rules to printing money.
A Congressional power of enforcement is included in a number of amendments to the United States Constitution. The language " The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation " is used, with slight variations, in Amendments XIII , XIV , XV , XIX , XXIII , XXIV , and XXVI .
Some critics complain congressional pay is high compared with a median American income of $45,113 for men and $35,102 for women. [26] Others have countered that congressional pay is consistent with other branches of government. [25] Congress has been criticized for trying to conceal pay raises by slipping them into a large bill at the last ...