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The Legislative Branch

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The Legislative Branch
The Legislative branch is the most powerful branch of the United States government. Congress has the power to tax, spend, make laws, and even make declarations of war. While the other branches often work independently of Congress – sometimes proceeding in complete opposition – the Constitution grants much more authority to Congress, making the Legislative branch the most powerful branch in government.
The Framers of the constitution recognized that the Legislative branch would have the most power in the United States. In fact, they were concerned that it would be too powerful and saw it necessary to divide it into two. In class, there was a discussion on The Federalist No. 51, which can be found in the back of the textbook. The author, James …show more content…
This is why the Judicial branch is not the most powerful branch of government. If the Court’s decisions were to deviate away from congressional approval, the Legislative branch can exert certain pressures on the Court. For example, Congress can change the starting date of the Court's term, and therefore delay certain actions the Court could take on a specific case. Congress can also alter the size of the Court since Article III of the Constitution permits Congress to determine the shape and structure of the federal judiciary (Wilson, 388). This could allow Congress to artificially sway a court case in their favor. And in an extreme circumstance, Congress has the power to propose constitutional amendments which could then force the Court to assume a particular legal …show more content…
Over the years, Congress has assumed significant investigatory power. This is called congressional oversight, and it is the reason why bureaucracy cannot be the strongest branch of government. As stated previously, when Congress creates a program or establishes a new governmental policy, its implementation is assigned to an Executive branch department or agency. This is the bureaucracy (Wilson, 354). Congressional committees can keep a watchful eye on the application of policies which are under their prerogative. If a program is mishandled or goes in a direction that was not intended by Congress, a committee could call on the heads of the program’s agency or department and have them answer for their actions in a hearing. This creates a persistent threat of Congress cutting an agency’s budget or even eliminating a program altogether. This is what keeps bureaucrats inline and under Congress’s control. Although many areas of congressional oversight are designed to control the bureaucracy, they also act as a safeguard to insure that certain agencies remain free from presidential influence (Wilson,
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