Title: Congressional authority to delegate power
Headings: Congressional authority to delegate power
Congressional authority to delegate power
Content: Why is it that administrative agencies can basically do what Congress does? ‒‒:‒‒
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For those who do not know, administrative agencies are created by legislatures, such as the United States Congress. The duties of administrative agencies are essentially legislative in nature. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency can pass rules and regulations that govern how many parts per million of some chemical are allowed in our water supply. In this example, the rules and regulations that are passed by the EPA are essentially the same as laws that could be passed by Congress itself. Administrative agencies started as a means for legislatures to pass regulations concerning a particular topic without the entire body of the legislature having to focus its time on those regulations. For instance, in times of war, Congress will be largely focused on the war effort. If the administration of our country's infrastructure to fix roads, for example, were left to Congress while it's focused on a war, it's possible that none of our street lights would work, and none of our vehicle shocks would work properly. Administrative agencies are made up of people with specialized knowledge on a particular subject. Those people and the regulations they create address only that subject.