Congressional Award Program Reauthorization Act

Enumerated powers · passes

Congress has authority under Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 to spend for the general welfare and under Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 to make laws necessary and proper for executing that spending power. A voluntary youth award program promoting public service, personal development, and physical fitness is a permissible exercise of the spending power, and reauthorizing its administrative board is incidental to that power.

Bill of Rights · passes

The act does not touch speech, religion, assembly, press, petition, arms, quartering, search and seizure, self-incrimination, trial rights, or cruel punishment. Participation in the Congressional Award Program is voluntary, so the Bill of Rights is not implicated.

Individual liberty · passes

The bill imposes no legal duty or prohibition on individuals. It does not restrict what a person can do with their own person, property, speech, labor, or belief. It simply continues a voluntary recognition program and puts no burden of justification on the individual.

Decentralization · passes

The act creates no regulatory regime and does not preempt or commandeer state or local action. A congressional award is an act of Congress, so lower levels of government cannot administer the identical congressional program; however, the program does not prevent private, local, or state youth recognition efforts. It therefore does not consolidate coercive decision-making upward and does not violate the Tenth Amendment.

Due process and takings · passes

The retroactive effective date is non-punitive and merely restores authorization for a federal program. It deprives no one of life, liberty, or property without due process, and it does not take private property for public use without just compensation under the Fifth Amendment.