[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 58 (Thursday, April 25, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H2352]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

            By Mr. CARTWRIGHT:
        H.R. 1725.
        Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant 
     to the following:
       Article I; Section 8 of the Constitution states ``The 
     Congress shallhave Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, 
     Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the 
     common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but 
     all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout 
     the United States;''
       The power to spend for the general welfare is one of the 
     broadest grants of authority to Congress in the United States 
     Constitution. The scope of the national spending power was 
     brought before the United States Supreme Court in a landmark 
     case in 1937 dealing with the newly enacted Social Security 
     Act. In Steward Machine Co. v. Davis the Court sustained a 
     tax imposed on employers to provide unemployment benefits to 
     individual workers.
       Subsequent Supreme Court decisions have not questioned 
     Congress's policy decisions as to what kinds of spending 
     programs are in pursuit of the ``general welfare,'' and so 
     numerous programs have been funded in such diverse areas as 
     education, housing, veterans' benefits, the environment, 
     welfare, health care, scientific research, the arts, 
     community development, and public financing of election 
     campaigns.