an excerpt, a bit long, but interesting regarding creating new federal agencies.
Full link at the end.
1946 was a watershed year for the U.S. government, and the way it's been run for the past 63 years. That was the year that the U.S. Congress passed the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). The APA was passed in the aftermath of the Depression and WWII to consolidate and standardize the expansion of government power as exercised through federal agencies .
In short, the APA is an extensive, complex and often confusing set of federal statutes that govern how administrative agencies operate. Under the APA, agencies possess powers similar to those possessed by all three branches of government rolled into one. Agencies have the power to legislate through rulemaking; the power to adjudicate through quasi-judicial courts; and the power to prosecute and enforce, like the executive branch.
The APA is like the operating program, if you will, that dictates the relationship between the American people on the one hand and administrative agencies on the other hand, including these agencies among others:
The Treasury Department
The Federal Reserve
The Federal Home Loan Bank Board
The Securities and Exchange Commission
The Department of Agriculture
The Federal Trade Commission
The Food and Drug Administration
Now, here are a few historical anecdotes about administrative law and the APA.
The accumulation of power within these agencies via the APA was largely a response to the crises of the Depression and WWII.
President Franklin Roosevelt - himself an architect of many administrative entities - is said to have worried that the establishment of agencies would create "a fourth branch of government for which there is no sanction in the U.S. Constitution,"
Indeed, a 1936 government report about administrative agencies described them as a "headless" branch of government.
By many accounts, the single most-cited U.S Supreme Court case is Chevron v. Nat'l Resources Defense Council, in which the 1984 Court held that decisions of administrative agencies are entitled to substantial judicial deference. In other words, there's not much legal leverage with which to hold these administrative agencies accountable - and this legal mantra from the highest court in the land is being embedded in our culture more often than any other. ...
...And one more thing - remember George Orwell's book 1984, and the Ministry of Peace (that perpetuated war), the Ministry of Plenty (that ration food), the Ministry of Truth (to control information) and the Ministry of Love (where enemies of the State were interrogated and punished)? Those Ministries were administrative agencies.
Of course, that was just fiction.
The source of this excerpt (surprise!)
Full link at the end.
1946 was a watershed year for the U.S. government, and the way it's been run for the past 63 years. That was the year that the U.S. Congress passed the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). The APA was passed in the aftermath of the Depression and WWII to consolidate and standardize the expansion of government power as exercised through federal agencies .
In short, the APA is an extensive, complex and often confusing set of federal statutes that govern how administrative agencies operate. Under the APA, agencies possess powers similar to those possessed by all three branches of government rolled into one. Agencies have the power to legislate through rulemaking; the power to adjudicate through quasi-judicial courts; and the power to prosecute and enforce, like the executive branch.
The APA is like the operating program, if you will, that dictates the relationship between the American people on the one hand and administrative agencies on the other hand, including these agencies among others:
The Treasury Department
The Federal Reserve
The Federal Home Loan Bank Board
The Securities and Exchange Commission
The Department of Agriculture
The Federal Trade Commission
The Food and Drug Administration
Now, here are a few historical anecdotes about administrative law and the APA.
The accumulation of power within these agencies via the APA was largely a response to the crises of the Depression and WWII.
President Franklin Roosevelt - himself an architect of many administrative entities - is said to have worried that the establishment of agencies would create "a fourth branch of government for which there is no sanction in the U.S. Constitution,"
Indeed, a 1936 government report about administrative agencies described them as a "headless" branch of government.
By many accounts, the single most-cited U.S Supreme Court case is Chevron v. Nat'l Resources Defense Council, in which the 1984 Court held that decisions of administrative agencies are entitled to substantial judicial deference. In other words, there's not much legal leverage with which to hold these administrative agencies accountable - and this legal mantra from the highest court in the land is being embedded in our culture more often than any other. ...
...And one more thing - remember George Orwell's book 1984, and the Ministry of Peace (that perpetuated war), the Ministry of Plenty (that ration food), the Ministry of Truth (to control information) and the Ministry of Love (where enemies of the State were interrogated and punished)? Those Ministries were administrative agencies.
Of course, that was just fiction.
The source of this excerpt (surprise!)
