The powers of Congress as defined in the Constitution of The United States of America
Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay
and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for
the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts
and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on
the credit of the United States; To regulate commerce with foreign nations,
and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes; To establish a uniform
rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout
the United States; To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; To provide for the punishment
of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; To establish
post offices and post roads; To promote the progress of science and useful arts,
by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their
respective writings and discoveries; To constitute tribunals inferior to the
Supreme Court; To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high
seas, and offenses against the law of nations; To declare war, grant letters
of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for
a longer term than two years; To provide and maintain a navy; To make rules
for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; To provide for
calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections
and repel invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of
the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers,
and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed
by Congress; To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over
such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states,
and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States,
and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature
of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And 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. ----The U.S. Constitution
