Article 1, Section 7, Clause 1: Origination Clause

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

This clause establishes the exclusive prerogative of the House of Representatives to originate bills levying taxes. It is a much-watered-down version of the British parliamentary rules of the time, under which all money bills (bills either raising revenue or authorizing spending) had to be introduced in the House of Commons. The American version was limited only to bills levying taxes, and the Senate was permitted to amend such bills. Thus this “power of the purse” was rendered effectively toothless, and no law has ever been struck down by the Supreme Court on Origination Clause grounds. During the budget crisis of 2013, when the House could not agree on a bill to end the budgetary crisis, the Senate took an insignificant House bill and amended it with tax measures to end the crisis while formally satisfying the requirement that a tax bill must originate in the House.