administrative law (defined)
- residual/negative definition of law capturing the remainder after legislation and judicial decisions
- agencies dwarf congress and the courts
What is an agency?
- not a precise term; covers the organizations helping the President execute the law
- incl. “Bureau”, “Office”, “Commission” and “Dept.”,
- alphabet soup: FDA, EPA, HHS,
- federal executive instrumentality headed by political appointees nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate
- can be federal or state . . . focus on federal
Where do Agencies come from?
- in Art. II, Constitution gives President power to appoint officials “Heads of Departments” and inferior officers
- Congress creates agencies through statute
- Congress authorizes agency conduct, names offices, sets the organization, and appropriates funds
History of Agency
- growth of admin law and agency comes in waves
notably - 1800s progressives dealing with the new industrial problems of railroads and food manufacturing . . . needed some regulating and distrusted courts
- 1930/40s regarding public markets, SEC, SSA
- 1960/70s regarding consumer, environment, worker protections
What do agencies do?
lawmakers & judges
- require disclosure/publicity (ex: SEC)
- protect industries (ex: FCC)
- contain monopolies (ex: FTC)
- protect consumers & workplace (ex: FDA, OSHA)
- provide services (ex: USPS)
How to classify agencies?
- subject matter
- dependent vs. independent
- friendly vs. hostile
- captured
classifying agencies by subject matter
classifying agencies by subject matter: those that . . .
- regulate business (ex: SEC)
- manage public resources (ex: BLM)
- administer public welfare (ex: SSA)
classifying agencies: dependent
- component of federal departments
- overseen by someone at teh cabinet level
- subject to significant oversight by OIRA
classifying agencies: independent
- are NOT connect w/any department
- president’s removal powers restrained
- ex: SSA, SEC, EPA, EEOC, USPS
(Trump appointee in USPS that Biden wanted to remove, but couldn’t b/c independent agency)
classifying agencies: friendly vs. hostile
friendly - where agencies regualte industry in a way that’s meant to protect the industry often via barriers (ex: state licensing boards)
hostile - agency has adversarial relationship where usually regulating to protect some kind of third party (consumers, environment, employees, etc.) ex: OSHA
classifying agencies: capture
agencies can become captured by the industry and interest groups that they’re supposed to regulate where the agencies start seeing everything from the regualted entities’ point of view and distanced from the consumer/protected party (ex: FAA on Boeing)
