•What are the key sources of Congress’s foreign relations powers?
•How does the power-sharing agreement between Congress and the President on the issues of war and national defense work?
•What other key powers can Congress exercise?
Foreign Relations and War Powers
•Congress has the inherent power to act on matters affecting the security of the nation.
• Congress’s war powers are extensive and substantial, including: the power to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, and to organize, arm, and discipline the military.
•Congress also has the power to restrict the use of American forces in combat in areas where a state of war does not exist (War Powers Resolution of 1973).
Other Expressed Powers
Naturalization
Naturalization is the process by which citizens of one country become citizens of another.
The Postal Power
Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 says that Congress has the power “[t]o establish Post Offices and post Roads.”
Copyrights and Patents
A copyright is the exclusive right of an author to reproduce, publish, and sell his or her creative work.
A patent grants a person the sole right to manufacture, use, or sell “any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.”
Weights and Measures
Congress has the power to “fix the Standard of Weights and Measures” throughout the United States.
Judicial Powers
Congress may create all of the federal courts below the Supreme Court and structure the federal judiciary.
Congress may also define federal crimes and set punishment for violators of federal law.
Power Over Territories and Other Areas
Congress has the power to acquire, manage, and dispose of various federal areas.
One way of acquiring property is through eminent domain, the inherent power to take private property for public use.
For Fun try a practice citizenship test (click the link to start):my.uscis.gov/en/prep/test/civics/view
All the following expressed powers belong to Congress EXCEPT
a. the power to declare war. c. the power to naturalize citizens.
b. the power to tax exports. d. the power to raise an army.
Congress shares foreign relations power with the
a. President. c. States.
b. Supreme Court. d. armed forces.
Answers: B / A