[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 164 (Wednesday, December 19, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H7360]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

            By Mr. JORDAN:
        H.R. 6688.
        Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant 
     to the following:
       The Constitution (specifically Article 1, Section 8, Clause 
     1) grants Congress the power to lay and collect taxes, 
     duties, imposts, and excises under certain conditions. 
     Congress has previously utilized this grant of authority--
     broadened by the 16th Amendment to include taxation on 
     income--and therefore existing law in this area would not be 
     expanded by this bill. The legislation continues current tax 
     policy in some cases (requiring no additional expansion of 
     power) or limits and repeals current utilization of power by 
     the Congress (also requiring no additional Constitutional 
     Authority beyond what currently exists).
       Congress has similarly utilized the constitutional power to 
     withdraw funds from the treasury (affirmed in Article 1, 
     Section 9, Clause 7) so long as the funds are spent on a 
     constitutionally appropriate power; if Congress has authority 
     to fund what it currently does fund, then it also has the 
     power to limit the amount that it appropriates to these ends. 
     Additionally, this legislation repeals or reduces the funding 
     for various federal programs and repeals certain requirements 
     imposed by federal legislation and agencies, many of which 
     have a questionable basis in the constitutional powers of 
     Congress. By reducing or repealing these programs and 
     regulations, this legislation is acting on the affirmation in 
     the 10th Amendment that ``powers not delegated to the United 
     States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the 
     States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
     people.'' This legislation would more closely align the 
     federal government with both the letter and spirit of the 
     Constitution in the ways stated above.