"ACUS is a public-private partnership designed to make the government work better"
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
PREAMBLE
At the request of the Office of Personnel Management, the Administrative Conference undertook a study of a series of issues relating to the roles of Federal administrative law judges (ALJs) and non-ALJ adjudicators, or administrative judges (AJs),1 as they have evolved over the last several decades. The study addressed a number of different issues, including those...
In 1974 Congress enacted the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (“JJDP”) Act, which created the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (“OJJDP” or “the Office”) within the U.S. Department of Justice. Among OJJDP’s responsibilities, then and now, is the administering of a program of formula grants to states and local governments. While the overall purposes of the formula grant program...
In the last decade, following the passage in 1980 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA),1 commonly referred to as Superfund, the nation has begun focusing its attention on the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. The task is a daunting one. There currently are approximately 1200 sites on the National Priorities List (NPL), the list of most hazardous sites, and it...
If American administrative agencies could ever afford to engage in regulatory activities without regard to the policies and practices of administrative agencies abroad, the character and pace of world developments suggest that that era has come to a close. The substantive problems facing agencies have parallels, to a greater or lesser extent, in the problems facing those agencies' counterparts in foreign...
The Export Administration Act (EAA), 50 U.S.C. App 2401-2420, authorizes the Commerce Department to restrict exports of goods and technology from the United States in the interests of national security, foreign policy objectives, and preservation of this country’s access to commodities in short supply. It is the principal element in a scheme of export controls that emerged after World War II to serve three...
As part of the Social Security program, Congress has authorized the Social Security Administration (SSA) to pay certain beneficiaries’ benefits to other persons or organizations where the Secretary determines payment to such a “representative payee” would be in the interest of the beneficiary.1 SSA currently pays about $20 billion annually in social security benefits to representative payees of more than 4...
The Program, which became effective October 1, 1988, is unique among federal benefit programs in its organizational structure and decision-making processes. It was intended to provide an alternative to the tort system for dealing with claims of vaccine-related injury, awarding compensation quickly, fairly, and efficiently. It was also intended to contribute to improving immunization rates, stabilizing the...
The National Labor Relations Board (the Board) has formulated policy almost exclusively through the process of administrative adjudication despite having been granted both rulemaking and adjudicatory power in its statutory charter more than half a century ago. Even as rulemaking eclipsed adjudication as the preferred method of policymaking among major federal agencies, the Board steadfastly relied upon the...
In July 1989, the Administrative Conference began a study of the structures and procedures employed by the government to oversee the safety and soundness of these institutions.2 During the pendency of the study, numerous other legislative and executive branch studies of the operations of the GSEs have been completed.3 The Conference has been informed by all of these studies in its consideration of this...
The Farmers Home Administration (“FmHA”) is charged with serving as a temporary source of supervised credit and technical support to help rural Americans improve their farming enterprises, housing conditions, and other business endeavors until they are able to qualify for private sector resources. During the 1980s, an economic downtown seriously affected the agricultural sector and led FmHA, as a lender of...