 let's say you never took social studies back in high school or you did but you forgot everything from it can you say what the branches of the federal government are and what they do can you say your own name do you know where you are does the back of your head hurt if so you may have amnesia and will need a different video or a trip to the emergency room the three branches in the order we'll talk about them are the legislative branch or congress the executive branch or the president and the federal agencies and the judicial branch or the federal courts first congress the legislative branch congress is the branch that writes and passes laws it also coins money passes budgets decides taxes and fees for revenue and regulates interstate or international commerce basically congress is where the money is regulating commerce is one of the most important powers because when the constitution was written most everything was either made or grew by the person using it or bought from close by now pretty much everything comes to us from far away and through many people and corporations the supreme court has also widened the definition of interstate to include activities that happen entirely in one state if the total of those activities affects interstate commerce in some way that has come to mean just about everything which gives congress a lot of power also in the money department is spending taxes come in and spending goes out the supreme court has ruled congress can pretty much spend money on anything it wants to as long as it doesn't violate anyone's rights including equal treatment and due process in doing so this might even mean spending money to get the states to do something congress doesn't have the power to order them to do so the spending power is another one of the broadest powers congress has congress has the power to create armed forces and to declare war though there is an ongoing debate between congress and the president on when a declaration of war is actually needed to start fighting presidents have argued that they don't need to have a declaration of war when the u.s. is attacked or when the fighting is less than a full-out war the last war that was declared first was world war two congress has passed a law requiring the president to get approval for any armed conflict less than a war after a certain amount of time but presidents claim they don't necessarily need to do that which has been the source of arguing when we fought in Somalia and Bosnia in the 90s or Libya recently congress has some slightly less exciting powers too they can create a postal service but not manage it they can manage patents trademarks and copyrights they can create federal courts but don't manage them either they have the power to investigate the federal agencies they can set standard weights and measures the post civil war amendments to the constitution also give congress certain powers to enforce the protection and equal treatment of racial minorities in addition to all the listed powers of congress it also has the power to create any laws necessary to enforce its listed powers that could be a lot of things so it has the potential to become another big source of power now on to the president and the executive branch the president executes the laws this means managing the federal agencies there are quite a few all federal agencies get their powers from the laws passed by congress and get their funding from the budgets passed by congress but the president manages them this includes picking over 6000 top level positions that includes all the federal judges the senate has to approve the highest level positions in the agencies as well as the judges even though it seems like congress would have all the power since it writes the laws the president is the one who approves rules and regulations for the agencies usually the law only gives an outline of what the agency needs to do and the regulations fill that in congress can set rules about how agencies may spend money though as an extra way to have control the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces so even if congress decides that we're at war the president actually runs the war the president can grant pardons for federal crimes some pardon requests stand a better chance than others the president manages foreign relations though the senate has to agree to a treaty by a two-thirds vote the technical term for that is ratification now even though congress passes laws the president can veto them or the president can hold the bill for up to 10 days and if congress's session ends in that time the bill goes away which is called a pocket veto the term pocket veto comes from the first president to use it James Madison who had very deep pockets where he stored trail mix congress can override a veto and pass the law anyway but that takes a two-thirds majority so it doesn't happen very often the president can also sign a law but say that he'll only interpret it in certain ways which is called a signing statement it's another way to influence laws without actually being able to make them finally we have the judicial branch at the top of which is the supreme court this is the branch that interprets the constitution and deals with court cases about federal laws including deciding what a vague law means if one of the other two branches does something unconstitutional it can usually be blocked in court the courts also decide if a federal law in an area where the federal and state governments both have powers overrules those state laws which is called preemption one example of an overlap is environmental regulation and of course the courts deal with federal law and federal crimes in cases just like any other court even though the supreme court is at the top most cases get resolved way before then the courts are influenced by both of the other branches because the president appoints judges and they have to be approved by the senate but then once the judges are in they're in for life so they end up with a lot of independence those are the basics of what the three branches do and what their powers are and just in time for you to get that head looked at and there you have it