Title: Legislative Agencies | Justia
Headings: Legislative Agencies
Legislative Agencies
Content: Legislative Agencies | Justia
Justia Administrative Law Legislative Agencies
Legislative Agencies
In order to assist the President and Congress with administering and overseeing the vast number of federal laws, Congress establishes legislative agencies and delegates rulemaking authority to them. Each legislative agency is responsible for a specific industry or public service. To create a legislative agency, Congress must pass a statute, or “enabling act.” The enabling act defines the scope of the legislative agency’s power and defines the areas or subjects within its jurisdiction. For example, the enabling act that created the United States Food and Drug Administration is the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Legislative agencies are subject to the Administrative Procedures Act, or APA. The APA was passed in 1946 and designed to establish general rules and procedures that apply to agencies’ conduct and activities. The APA also outlines the procedures that a party must follow in order to seek judicial review of an agency action. Legislative agencies that seek to promulgate new regulations must abide by the APA’s public notice and comment requirements, and they must post notices in the Federal Register. Many of the most widely known federal agencies are legislative agencies.