Defend American Agriculture Act

This bill, amending the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act with respect to funding and assistance, falls squarely within the enumerated powers of Congress. The Constitution vests in Congress the power to 'lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States' (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1), and to 'regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes' (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The Commodity Credit Corporation is a federal instrumentality used to…

This bill, by amending the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act to authorize further funding and assistance for agricultural purposes, exceeds the limited powers delegated to Congress by the Constitution. The General Welfare Clause of Article I, Section 8 is not an independent grant of power to legislate for any object that may be deemed beneficial; rather, it is a restriction on the taxing power, and the enumerated powers contain no authority to establish a federal corporation for agricultural subsidies or to provide direct aid to farmers. Such a measure invades the rights of the states a…

The proposed amendment to the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act concerns the funding and assistance provided by a federal corporation that supports agricultural commerce. The Constitution grants Congress the power to lay and collect taxes to provide for the general welfare and to regulate commerce among the several states. The assistance provided under this Act is a means of promoting agricultural stability, which falls within the sphere of the general welfare and interstate commerce. As I argued in Federalist No. 45, the powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined, b…

This bill proposes to amend the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act, which involves federal funding and assistance. Under the Constitution, Congress possesses the power to appropriate funds and regulate commerce, as per Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 (the Taxing and Spending Clause) and Clause 3 (the Commerce Clause). However, the Constitution requires that such legislation be necessary and proper for executing these enumerated powers, as established in McCulloch v. Madison (1803) established that it is emphatically the province of the judicial department to say what the law is, and that …