Tracking Plastic Act of 2026

This bill, establishing a federal working group for recycled plastic content traceability, falls within the legitimate sphere of federal authority. The regulation of articles that move in interstate commerce, including the materials and products affected by plastic content standards, is expressly committed to the national government under the commerce power. Moreover, the creation of a working group to investigate and recommend measures is a proper exercise of the implied powers necessary to execute that authority, consistent with the doctrine of implied powers. As I argued in the Federalist, …

This bill purports to establish a federal working group for recycled plastic content traceability, an object not delegated to the United States by the Constitution. The powers of Congress are few and defined (Article I, Section 8), and no clause therein grants authority to create administrative bodies for matters of in-state manufacturing, waste management, or environmental labeling, all of which remain with the several States or the People under the Tenth Amendment. The commerce power is limited to regulation of interstate commerce, not the internal police of production or the mere establishm…

The establishment of a Federal working group for recycled plastic content traceability falls within the enumerated powers of Congress under the Commerce Clause, as the traceability of recycled plastic content directly affects interstate commerce in plastic materials and recycling markets. The Necessary and Proper Clause further authorizes Congress to create administrative bodies as a means to execute its regulatory powers, provided such bodies are incidental to a legitimate constitutional end. The working group serves a fact-finding and coordination function that is reasonably adapted to the r…

This bill, establishing a federal working group for recycled plastic content traceability, is a constitutional exercise of the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the several states. The subject of recycled plastic content directly bears upon the stream of commerce, and the tracing of such content is a means to ensure the integrity of interstate transactions in these materials. Under the principles announced in McCulloch v. Maryland, where the end is legitimate and within the scope of the Constitution, all means which are plainly adapted to that end are constitutional. The working gro…