Title: Congressional authority to delegate power
Headings: Congressional authority to delegate power
Congressional authority to delegate power
Content: 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. I like your question about how such a thing can be done when it is Congress who is vested with the responsibility of passing laws. The issue of the constitutionality of Congress' ability to create administrative agencies has come before the United States Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has ruled that these agencies are constitutional. In sum, Congress has the authority to delegate its legislative power to administrative agencies and even to executive branch officers. A good example of this right of Congress to delegate its authority deals with the federal courts. Congress controls the federal courts, as evidenced by the political fight going on right now over the appointment of federal judges.