Name One Power That Is Only for the Federal Government. Civics Question 58

One answer is to declare war.

Question 58 asks for one power that belongs only to the federal government. Accepted answers include print paper money, mint coins, declare war, create an army, make treaties, and set foreign policy. Any one of them is marked correct. Question 59 asks the opposite, for a power that belongs only to the states.

Why These Powers Are Federal

The Constitution hands certain jobs to the national government and keeps them away from the states, and the accepted answers share a reason.

Money has to be the same everywhere. A dollar earned in Ohio has to spend in Arizona, so one government prints the paper money and mints the coins. Fifty states printing fifty currencies would end that.

War works the same way. The country speaks to other countries with one voice, so no single state can declare war on its own. Congress declares war for the whole nation, the federal government creates the army, and only the federal government makes treaties and sets foreign policy.

Why the Officer Asks This

Questions 58, 59 and 60 form a set about federalism, which is the split between national and state power. This one covers the national half.

The officer is checking that you can sort a power to the right level of government. That sorting shows up again in question 60, where the 10th Amendment explains what happens to every power the Constitution did not hand to Washington.

How to Remember a Federal-Only Power

The accepted answers collapse into three words: money, war, foreign. Printing paper money and minting coins are money. Declaring war and creating an army are war. Treaties and foreign policy are foreign.

Money, war and other countries belong to the national government. Say those three words to yourself and any one of them leads you to a correct answer.

Common Ways People Get This Wrong

Naming schools, police, or fire departments is the frequent miss, because those are the answers to question 59. If your answer is something you see in your own town every day, it is probably a state power.

Issuing driver’s licenses is another common wrong answer here. Licenses come from the state, which is why the address on yours is a state office.

What to Say on Test Day

Say “to declare war.” Three words, and the answer is complete.

If money is easier for you to remember, say “print money” instead. Give one power, then stop. The question asked for one, and a second answer only creates a second chance to be wrong.