Question

What Act was passed in past due to fears concerning administrative agencies and their seemingly limitless power? Explain in brief how the Act sought out to restrict agency power.

Answer 1

Administrative agencies :-

Administrative agencies, often called the "fourth branch," are entities of government that make decisions within particular substantive fields.

Administrative agency rules and regulations often have the force of law against individuals. This tendency has led many critics to charge that the creation of agencies circumvents the constitutional directive that laws are to be created by elected officials. According to these critics, administrative agencies constitute an unconstitutional,

These agencies are involved in virtually every area of government activity and affect ordinary citizens in many ways, whether these citizens are home owners needing a building permit to erect a new room, or injured employees seeking workers' compensation, or farmers selling their produce.

limitless power of administrative agencies :-

Since the delegating body has such a wide degree of latitude in deciding how much power to delegate, there is no absolute rule as to how much power an agency has.

Administrative agencies, in order to realize their purpose efficiently and effectively, need wider power and discretion. For this reason, they blend together three powers of government: executive, legislative and judicial powers. Administrative agency rules and regulations often have the force of law against individual.

Legislative power :- usually known as rule- making power and more formally delegated legislation, is the power of agencies to enact binding rules through the power delegated to them by the legislator. These agencies are involved in virtually every area of government activity and affect ordinary citizens in many ways, whether these citizens are home owners needing a building permit to erect a new room, or injured employees seeking workers' compensation, or farmers selling their produce.

judicial power:-When agencies exercise their judicial powers, they are in effect applying the facts to the law just like a court. Consequently, they determine rights, entitlements and benefits of individuals. The decisions may greatly affect individual’s rights and benefits, for example, revocation of license, deportation of aliens, determining whether an applicant is entitled to pension, imposition of administrative fines for non- compliance, dismissal of a civil servant etc

Administrative Power:-It is concerned with the treatment of a particular situation and is devoid of generality.  It is based on subjective satisfaction where decision is based on policy and expediency.

In recent years, modern administrative agencies have increasingly come under attack for violating the traditional separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution. Such agencies are thought to possess too much unchecked power and to produce too much undesirable regulation.

Act was passed due to fears concerning administrative agencies:-

Administrative agencies began as part of the EXECUTIVE BRANCH of government and were designed to carry out the law and the president's policies. Congress, however, retains primary control over the organization of the bureaucracy, including the power to create and eliminate agencies and confirm presidential nominations for staffing the agencies.

In 1947, the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE issued the Attorney General's Manual on the Administrative Procedure Act . In 1947, Congress adopted the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”), which governs the process by which administrative agencies create and enact laws. The Act was implemented in order to ensure that the public has adequate notice of proposed laws, that there is an opportunity to comment on the proposed law, and that there are clear standards for agency rulemaking. The APA also specifies when courts may review and nullify administrative agency rules and provides standards for any administrative hearings that are conducted.

The purpose of the APA is to provide minimum procedural standards that federal administrative agencies must follow. It distinguishes between two major forms of administrative functions: agency rulemaking and agency adjudication. Administrative rulemaking is analogous to the legislative acts, while an administrative adjudication is analogous to a judicial decision.

The APA was designed to increase access to agency law by allowing the public to participate in agencies' decision-making process. I

How the Act sought out to restrict agency power.

The Administrative Procedure Act governs the practice and proceedings before federal administrative agencies. The procedural rules and regulations of most federal agencies are set forth in the code of federal regulations (CFR).

The fundamental challenge of administrative law is in designing a system of checks that will minimize the risks of bureaucratic arbitrariness and overreaching, while preserving for the agencies the flexibility that they need in order to act effectively.