✍️ Congress Has the Power to Regulate Industry—And the Duty to Do It
The Constitution is clear: Congress must regulate industry for the public good. Tell them to do their job before it’s too late.
Big polluters and their allies in Congress and the White House want to roll back the rules that protect our air, water, and health. If they succeed, corporations will profit while communities pay the price.
The Trump administration recently moved to roll back methane regulations, weaken the Clean Water Act, and approve new oil releases. And Republican members of Congress are backing him, despite their constitutional duty to regulate industry for the public good.
For example, on July 8, Trump issued an order narrowing renewable energy tax credits—affecting wind and solar projects—while invoking a controversial directive telling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expedite nuclear approvals regardless of safety concerns.
But members of Congress and the president don't have the right to ignore the U.S. Constitution.
The Commerce Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) gives Congress the power—and the responsibility—to regulate industry. When lawmakers allow businesses to pollute unchecked, they fail their duty and violate the public trust.
And Article II, Section 3, of the Constitution says the president "shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."
Known as a "trustbuster" for his efforts to regulate corporate monopolies, President Theodore Roosevelt, a progressive Republican, emphasized in 1908 the need for the federal government to have control over railroads "and other instruments of interstate commerce."
Roosevelt understood that unchecked corporate power threatened ordinary Americans. Today’s Trump-era Republicans have abandoned that legacy, siding with corporate polluters instead of protecting public health.
History Shows That Regulation Protects the Public
For more than a century, Congress has used the Commerce Clause to ensure that industries serving the entire nation do not abuse their power. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 was one of the first major federal laws to regulate big business. It stopped railroad companies from exploiting farmers and small businesses through unfair pricing and monopolistic practices.
That same principle applies today: when industries harm the public, the government has a duty to step in.
Congress has a constitutional obligation to regulate commerce for the public good. Over the decades, that obligation has led to laws that protect all of us, like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and laws ensuring food and drug safety.
These laws exist because pollution and environmental harm don’t stop at state borders. They affect all of us.
Corporate Interests Are Working to Weaken These Protections
Trump’s allies in Congress are pushing to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of enforcement powers, claiming “overregulation” hurts business. But they’ve gone further—instructing regulators to fast-track nuclear projects and orchestrating sweeping agency firings.
These are not abstract policy shifts. They’re attacks on public health, safety, and constitutional balance. If they succeed, communities will suffer—especially those already hit hardest by pollution and climate change.
More than a century ago, attorney and reformer Louis Brandeis warned about the threat concentrated wealth poses to democracy. As reflected in the arguments of his 1914 book Other People’s Money:
We must make our choice. We may have a democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
Just this month, the Supreme Court green-lighted massive EPA and Veterans Administration layoffs engineered by Trump’s executive changes—further evidence that MAGA Republicans are abandoning constitutional governance in favor of deregulatory purges.
Congress now faces a clear choice: Stand up to Trump’s sweeping deregulation of environmental and consumer protections or let corporations put profits above people.
What Can You Do?
📢 Hold Congress accountable. The Commerce Clause isn’t just about business. It’s also about making sure companies don’t harm people, communities, or the planet.
📢 Call or email your elected officials (U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, state leaders). Tell them:
Stop Trump’s corporate giveaways. Protect our air, water, and health. Your oath to the Constitution demands it.
You have a constitutional duty to regulate commerce for the public good.
We need strong environmental protections, not corporate giveaways.
Failing to act violates your oath to uphold the Constitution.
🏛️ Contact info:
🏛️ Contact key agencies:
🚨 The stakes couldn’t be higher. This is our air. Our water. Our health. Our future. Now is the time to act. Contact Congress and demand they do their job—before it’s too late.
