Interactions Among Branches of Government

An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14.

How far does Congress's Article I taxing-and-spending power reach when exercised through budget reconciliation — a process that needs only 51 Senate votes but is limited by the Byrd Rule to budgetary provisions?

Rescissions Act of 2025

Who controls money after it is appropriated? The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 lets a President propose rescissions but requires Congress to approve them within 45 days — this act is that rarely-successful procedure actually working, cancelling roughly $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funds.

Laken Riley Act

Two questions: does mandatory federal detention of noncitizens arrested for (not convicted of) theft-related crimes satisfy Fifth Amendment due process — and can Congress hand states standing to sue the federal government over immigration enforcement decisions, inverting the usual rule that immigration is exclusively federal?

Digital Asset Market Clarity Act

Not whether Congress can regulate digital assets — the commerce power clearly reaches them — but which agency gets the turf: the bill draws the statutory line between SEC (securities) and CFTC (commodities) jurisdiction, a case study in Congress structuring the administrative state.

TAKE IT DOWN Act

Can Congress criminalize publishing nonconsensual intimate images — including AI-generated deepfakes — and require platforms to remove them within 48 hours of notice, without the takedown machinery sweeping in protected speech (overbreadth) or operating as a prior restraint?

GENIUS Act

When private companies issue dollar-pegged digital currency used for payments, is that banking (federal/state charters, reserve rules), securities issuance, or something new — and does the Article I coinage-and-commerce framework let Congress build a bespoke regime with both federal and state charter paths?

Providing congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "California State Motor Vehicle and Engine Pollution Control Standards; Advanced Clean Cars II; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision".

Layered: (1) federalism — the Clean Air Act has let California set stricter vehicle rules since 1967, which a dozen states adopt, making Sacramento a de facto national regulator; (2) separation of powers — Congress used the Congressional Review Act on a waiver that GAO and the Senate parliamentarian said was not a 'rule,' expanding the CRA's kill-switch beyond its understood limits.

A joint resolution disapproving the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to "Overdraft Lending: Very Large Financial Institutions".

After INS v. Chadha killed the one-house legislative veto, the Congressional Review Act became Congress's constitutional workaround: a joint resolution, passed by both chambers and signed by the President, that voids an agency rule and bans 'substantially similar' rules forever. This resolution used it to erase the CFPB's $5 cap on bank overdraft fees.

NORRA of 2025

May Congress bar district courts from issuing injunctions broader than the parties before them — ending the 'nationwide injunction'? Article III lets Congress shape lower-court jurisdiction, but critics argue remedy-stripping guts judicial review itself when the government acts unlawfully against millions at once.

Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025

The purest power-of-the-purse case: with appropriations lapsing, Congress passed a full-year continuing resolution. In the Senate, ending debate required 60 votes — so a minority-party faction had to choose between advancing a bill it opposed and shutting the government. Ten did; the CR passed 54–46 on final passage.

Social Security Fairness Act of 2023

Nothing constitutional blocked this bill for twenty years — procedure did. The Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset reduced Social Security for ~2.8 million public retirees; repeal bills drew 300+ cosponsors every Congress and never got a floor vote until a discharge petition — 218 signatures overriding leadership's agenda control — forced one.

Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2023

None — and that is the lesson. The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act had bipartisan sponsors, broad cosponsorship, and no constitutional controversy. It died anyway, in the 118th Congress, because its CBO score (Medicare coverage of anti-obesity medication is expensive) never fit a budget vehicle. Most bills die exactly this quietly.

SAVE Act

Identical to its successor H.R. 22 (119th): can Congress use the Elections Clause to require documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration? This version answers a different question — what happens to a House-passed bill when the Senate simply never takes it up. It died on the Senate calendar when the 118th Congress adjourned.

Border Act of 2024

None of substance — which is the lesson. Article I gives Congress clear authority over immigration; the Border Act was negotiated by a Republican, a Democrat, and an independent, and it still died 43–50 on a cloture vote that needed 60. The Senate's supermajority rule, not the Constitution, decided U.S. border policy in 2024.

21st Century ROAD to Housing Act

Article I, Section 7 in live action: the President refused to sign, demanding Congress first pass an unrelated voter-ID bill — and the Constitution called the bluff. Ten days after presentment (June 29), with Congress in session, the bill became Public Law 119-101 at midnight July 11, and the official record reads 'Sent to Archivist of the United States unsigned.' Had Congress been adjourned, the same inaction would have been a pocket veto. Underneath sits a Unit 1 question: federal law can fund and nudge housing supply, but the binding constraint — local zoning — belongs to a level of government Congress cannot commandeer.

Sunshine Protection Act of 2025

Constitutionally trivial — the commerce power has governed time zones for a century. The exam-relevant content is the coalition: the House passed permanent daylight saving 308–117 in July 2026 with both parties split internally, because the cleavage is regional (northern states face 9 a.m. winter sunrises) and occupational (farmers, parents, golfers, sleep scientists), not ideological. Students who assume every congressional fight maps onto liberal-versus-conservative get this wrong on FRQs; this bill is the corrective.

SAVE America Act

Two layers. Policy: may Congress require documentary proof of citizenship to register AND photo ID to vote in federal elections — the maximal Elections Clause claim. Process: this bill number never left committee; the House passed its text in February 2026 by gutting a Senate-passed veterans bill (S. 1383) and sending the message back — where cloture failed 53–47 in March. The President then refused to sign unrelated legislation, including the ROAD to Housing Act, to force a Senate vote; the ten-day rule enacted the housing bill anyway. One bill, three lessons: shell vehicles, the filibuster, and the limits of signature leverage.

Homeland Security and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026.

How granular can the power of the purse get? After DHS funding lapsed on February 14, 2026, the department ran shut down for a record 76 days while Congress fought over one question — whether ICE and CBP would receive new money at all. The law that ended it on April 30 funded the department's other missions and provided those two agencies nothing, making the appropriations rider, not the authorization statute, the operative control on federal law enforcement.

Secure America Act

What happens when the regular appropriations process says no? The same spring Congress zeroed ICE and CBP out of the FY2026 DHS bill, the majority moved roughly $70 billion for those agencies — available through FY2029 — via budget reconciliation (Senate 52–47, House 214–212, Public Law 119-98), needing no minority votes at all. The pairing with H.R. 7147 is the whole lesson: the filibuster governs one lane of the purse and not the other, and multi-year money insulates agencies from the next annual fight.

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026

Authorization versus appropriation — the distinction students most often miss. The NDAA sets policy and authorizes programs; separate appropriations bills provide the dollars. It has been enacted for more than six consecutive decades, making it the last reliably functioning piece of regular order in Congress — and this year's edition shows the full inter-chamber machine: the House passed H.R. 3838, the Senate passed S. 2296, and the negotiated final text became law on a third vehicle, S. 1071 (Public Law 119-60, December 18, 2025).