Make More in America Act of 2026

The bill to expand the mission of the Export-Import Bank is constitutional under Congress's power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and to provide for the general welfare. The Constitution expressly grants Congress authority to 'regulate Commerce with foreign Nations' (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3), and the Export-Import Bank's activities directly facilitate and promote foreign commerce by providing financing for exports. Additionally, the 'general Welfare' clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1) supports federal measures that strengthen the national economy and global competitivenes…

This bill proposes to expand the Export-Import Bank, a federal entity that uses public credit to promote private trade. The Constitution grants Congress power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, but the Tenth Amendment reserves to the States or the people all powers not delegated. The Bank's operations go beyond mere regulation; they involve direct government participation in commercial markets, subsidizing certain private enterprises at the expense of others. Such an exercise of federal power is not enumerated in the Constitution and encroaches upon the liberty of the people and the ri…

The proposed expansion of the Export-Import Bank's mission to build domestic critical industries may be constitutional if it remains strictly ancillary to the regulation of foreign commerce. Congress possesses the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, and may employ necessary and proper means to execute that power. However, the bill's language—'focus on building export-related domestic critical industries'—risks exceeding this limited grant if it becomes a general authority to promote domestic industry independent of actual export transactions. I…

The Constitution vests in Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers. A federal bank created to facilitate and encourage exports may be a necessary and proper means to regulate foreign commerce, as established in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), provided its operations do not exceed the scope of that power. However, if the bill’s provisions extend to activities not genuinely connected to foreign commerce—such as subsidizing purely domestic industries without a substantial l…