Where does power lie in Congress? Congress in the US is granted all legislative powers by the Constitution, the power to appropriate funds, regulate trade and commerce and to formally declare war. Although the President imposes his will on all of these activities Congress is still an extremely important and powerful body; arguably today it has a superior mandate as President Bush was elected on a popular minority and less recently. Congress is regularly re-elected (…showed first 75 words of 1739 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1739 total…information but a party policy on the issue, and do not wish to encourage independent-thinking members whose votes are regularly 'wildcards'. Their power is the pressure they can place on members (reduced leverage in the Senate as outlined earlier) and the rewards they can offer for loyalty. The vast majority of the total sum of the power of Congress is shared between committee and leadership, but the balance between the two is far from rigid.