Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act

Congress possesses the power to lay and collect taxes to provide for the general welfare, which encompasses relief measures for family grocers and farmers essential to the nation's food supply. Moreover, agriculture and grocery distribution involve commerce among the several states, subject to federal regulation. Such legislation promotes the commercial prosperity of the Union, as I argued in defense of a strong federal commercial authority.

The proposed 'Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act' appears to authorize federal expenditures or regulations in aid of agriculture and food distribution, matters not enumerated among the powers delegated to Congress. Such interventions into the internal economy of farming and groceries properly belong to the states or the people, as they concern local pursuits of happiness and industry. Strict construction requires that the general welfare clause be read in harmony with the enumerated powers, not as a boundless grant. To permit federal intrusion here would dissolve the vital boundaries between…

The Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act, by its title and designation in agriculture and food, contemplates measures favoring particular occupational classes—family grocers and farmers—which fall under the internal police powers reserved to the states. The federal government possesses no enumerated power to provide targeted relief in such domestic pursuits, as these concern the ordinary improvement and prosperity of local communities. While the taxing and spending authority exists for the general welfare, it cannot extend to partial distributions that inflame factions rooted in unequal proper…

The Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act, concerning agriculture and food provisions for families and farmers, falls within the enumerated powers of Congress to lay and collect taxes to provide for the general welfare, and to regulate commerce among the several states. Such measures are constitutional when the end is legitimate and the means are plainly adapted and moderately related to that end, as established in foundational reasoning. Referral to committee poses no constitutional impediment, as the legislative process resides in Congress.