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Article I

Legislative Branch: creates, makes the laws

Known as Congress.  This Branch is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate.  (You should know ALL of Article I names)

"All Legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."

 

(Article I, Section 1, of the United States Constitution)

The legislative branch is made up of the House and Senate, known collectively as the Congress. There are officially 18 "powers of Congress" in Section 8 of Article II --  

  • collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises

  • regulate foreign and domestic commerce

  • coin money and regulate the value thereof

  • declare war

  • support an army

  • provide and maintain a navy

  • establish lower federal courts

  • Congress can admit new states to the Union

  • propose amendments to the Constitution (Article V)

  • collect federal income taxes (Sixteenth Amendment)

  • enforce protection and extension of civil rights 

  • borrow money on the credit of the United States

  • establish laws of naturalization

  • punish counterfeiting of coin

  • promote patents and copyrights

  • establish post offices

  • punish piracy and felonies committed on the high seas

  • provide for and regulate a militia

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