Legislative power

Control the money

Congress alone can tax, borrow, and spend. The Constitution's bluntest structural check is one sentence: no money leaves the Treasury except through an appropriation made by law. An executive with no funding can do very little, which is exactly the point.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 & Section 9, Clause 7

Read the clause itself, verbatim and in plain language, in the in-app Constitution.

Held by

Congress, with revenue bills starting in the House

U.S. Representative U.S. Senator

How it works in practice

Taxing and spending run through ordinary legislation: authorizations create programs, annual appropriationA law permitting federal agencies to spend money. The Constitution forbids any spending without one, Congress's 'power of the purse'.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) fund them, and the government shutdownThe lapse in operations when appropriations expire: agencies must halt non-excepted work and furlough employees until funding resumes.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) makes spending without an appropriation illegal, which is why funding lapses shut the government down. Revenue bills must originate in the House, the chamberOne of the two houses of a legislature. Congress has two: the House of Representatives and the Senate. A bill must pass both, in identical text.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) the framers kept closest to the voters.

The answering checks

The PresidentCan veto tax and spending bills like any other, and proposes the annual budget that starts the debate.

The courtsPolice the spending power's conditions on states (South Dakota v. Dole; NFIB v. Sebelius).

See it in the app

Source

Constitution Annotated, Article I

Terms to know: appropriationA law permitting federal agencies to spend money. The Constitution forbids any spending without one, Congress's 'power of the purse'.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) · authorizationA law creating a program and setting its rules and spending ceilings. Separate from the appropriation that actually funds it.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) · government shutdownThe lapse in operations when appropriations expire: agencies must halt non-excepted work and furlough employees until funding resumes.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) · debt limitThe statutory cap on total federal borrowing. Raising it does not authorize new spending; it lets Treasury pay for spending Congress already enacted.Read the full definition (opens a new tab)

Plain-language civic education, not legal advice. The live boundaries of this power are set case by case; the sources above and the constitutional text control.