Constitutional Authority Statements and the Powers of Congress: An Overview

Summary

On January 5, 2011, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to House Rule XII to require that Members of the House state the constitutional basis for Congress’s power to enact the proposed legislation when introducing a bill or joint resolution. This Constitutional Authority Statement (CAS) rule, found at House Rule XII, clause 7(c), was subsequently adopted in the 113th, 114th, and 115th Congresses.

Understanding the CAS rule first requires an understanding of both the powers provided to the Congress under the Constitution and Congress’s role in interpreting the founding document. Article I’s Vesting Clause creates a Congress of specified or “enumerated” powers, and every law Congress enacts must be based on one or more of its powers enumerated in the Constitution. The Constitution creates two central types of limitations on Congress’s powers: (1) internal limits and (2) external limits. Internal limits are the restrictions inherent in the constitutional grants of power themselves, such as the limits on the scope of Congress’s powers under the Commerce Clause. External limits, on the other hand, are the constraints contained in affirmative prohibitions found elsewhere in the text or structure of the document, such as the First Amendment’s prohibition on Congress abridging the freedom of speech. While the Court’s 1803 decision in Marbury v. Madison firmly cemented the judicial branch’s role in interpreting the Constitution by recognizing the power of the Court to strike down legislation as unconstitutional, the early history of the nation is replete with examples of all three government branches playing a substantial role in constitutional interpretation. By the mid-20th century, however, the Supreme Court began articulating a theory of judicial supremacy that became widely accepted, wherein the federal judiciary is the final and exclusive arbiter of the Constitution’s meaning. Nonetheless, in recent decades, a number of legal scholars and government officials have criticized this theory, instead promoting the view that the political branches of government possess the independent and coordinate authority to interpret the Constitution. In support of this view, some point to (1) the Constitution itself requiring all Members of Congress to be bound by an oath to support the Constitution; (2) the presumption of constitutionality that courts afford legislation enacted by Congress; and (3) the wide range of questions the Constitution requires Congress to resolve.

A CAS is fundamentally a congressional interpretation of the Constitution, in that House Rule XII requires each Member introducing a piece of legislation to attach a statement which cites the power(s) that allows Congress to enact the legislation. The submitted CAS appears in the Congressional Record and is published on Congress.gov. The House Rules Committee has indicated that Members have significant discretion in determining whether particular CASs comply with the rule. The CAS rule is enforced only insofar as “the House clerk ... acts to verify that each bill has a justification” and “not [in judging] the adequacy of the justification itself.” The most common means of complying with the rule is to cite to a specific clause in Article I, Section 8, such as the Taxing and Spending Clause. The CAS rule has itself been subject to much debate, with proponents arguing that the rule promotes constitutional dialogue in the House, while critics contend that the rule provides minimal benefits and is administratively costly.

This report provides an overview of Congress’s powers under the Constitution and Congress’s role in interpreting the nation’s founding document. The report then examines House Rule XII, clause 7(c), discussing the results of a recent study conducted by CRS of CASs that were submitted during the last six months of the 114th Congress. The report concludes by discussing trends with regard to the House’s recent CAS practices and by providing considerations for congressional personnel drafting CASs. The report contains two tables: one that identifies the most commonly cited provisions in recent CASs, and a second that lists suggested constitutional bases for various types of legislation.