Real bill currently in Congress c/o HR/119/309
National Law Enforcement Officers Remembrance, Support, and Community Outreach Act
Latest action (2026-08-20): Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 658.
Official summary
National Law Enforcement Officers Remembrance, Support and Community Outreach Act. [sic] This bill temporarily directs the Department of the Interior to award a grant to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund for the expenses associated with operating and enhancing the community outreach, public education, and officer safety and wellness programs of the National Law Enforcement Museum.
The Framers
“Founders’ Verdict”
Confidence 0.65
Synthesis
A plurality of voices (Madison and Marshall) hold the appropriation constitutional only subject to conditions: (1) the measure must be sustained principally by the District Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 17), as the National Law Enforcement Museum sits within the seat of government where Congress holds plenary legislative authority, rather than by an expansive reading of the General Welfare Clause alone; (2) disbursement must proceed 'in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law' (Article I, Section 9, Clause 7) with strict accounting, legislative oversight, and assurance that funds serve public educational, commemorative, and officer-wellness purposes rather than private interest; (3) the appropriation must remain strictly temporary and subject to fresh congressional deliberation upon renewal, lest it ripen into a standing charge upon the Treasury; and (4) federal involvement must be confined to aid for education and remembrance without dictating the conduct of state and local peace officers, whose administration remains reserved to the States under the Tenth Amendment. Hamilton concurs in constitutionality (citing Article I, Section 8, Clauses 1, 17, and 18, Article II, Section 3, and the means-end rule of Federalist No. 33), while Jefferson dissents outright.
I discern no constitutional infirmity in this measure. First, the grant of power to Congress 'to lay and collect taxes... and provide for the common defence and general welfare' (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1) embraces expenditures directed toward objects tending to the national good; the public instruction of citizens in the administration of justice, and the support of those persons charged with preserving the public peace, are objects of precisely that description. Second, the National Law Enforcement Museum stands within the district over which Congress exercises exclusive 'Legislation in…
I have examined this bill with the Constitution before me, and I find no clause which authorizes the Congress to bestow public money upon a private memorial fund for the operation of a museum. The taxing power is granted 'to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States' (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1); yet this phrase cannot be read as an unlimited charter, for then every object of human benevolence or curiosity might be made a pretext for expenditure, and the enumeration of powers in Article I, Section 8 would be mere idle parchment. A museum, its…
The question before us is whether Congress may draw from the public Treasury to subsidize the operations of a private fund administering a museum and its educational programs. Two principles govern my inquiry. First, the powers of the general government are 'few and defined' (Federalist No. 45), and no clause of the Constitution vests Congress with a general police power or authority over the administration of justice within the several States. If this appropriation rested solely upon the General Welfare Clause (Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 1), it would be defective, for as I have elsewhere argued, tha…
The question before the Court is whether Congress may direct the expenditure of public monies to a private fund for the operation of a museum devoted to law enforcement remembrance, public education, and officer wellness. Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 empowers Congress to lay and collect taxes 'to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.' An end directed to public education, civic remembrance, and the safety of those who preserve the peace is capable of being reckoned among objects of the general welfare. By the rule announced in McCulloch v. …
What should pass
“AI Consensus Solution”
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