Powers Granted to Congress by the Constitution

The Constitution of the United States grants Congress some very important powers. As you read over the Constitution, you can find various duties and powers that the Congress has. The greatest of these can be found in the first article of the Constitution. Congress consists of two parts: the House of Representatives and the Senate. These two parts keep each other in check.

Article 1 of the Constitution gives Congress the right to keep the federal government going. Some of the powers that have been granted to Congress by this one article include the right to levy and collect taxes, and the ability to borrow money from the public treasury. Commerce between each state and foreign markets is regulated by Congress, also. The right to declare war is in the hands of the Congress. This means that the President would have to go before Congress to ask permission to declare war, even if the US was attacked outright. The first article gives Congress the right to have new post offices and roads built and the power to set up the federal court system. Some of these things are just taken for granted by millions of the citizens of the United States.

The next time you go to the post office or take a trip using the interstate highways, stop and think what it took to get them in place. The very right for them to be there began a couple of hundred years ago by a few brave souls.