Congress (Documents)

The basic principle of the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act—that an opportunity for public participation fosters the fair and informed exercise of rulemaking authority—is undercut by various categorical exemptions in 5 U.S.C. § 553(a). More than 25 years’ experience with rulemaking under the APA has shown some of these broad exemptions to be neither...

The Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 553 (1970), provides simple, flexible and efficient procedure for rulemaking, including publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register, opportunity for submission of written comments, and opportunity in the discretion of the agency for oral presentation. This notice-and-comment rulemaking procedure is...

The size and complexity of the Federal Government, coupled with the intricate and technical law concerning official capacity and parties defendant, have given rise to innumerable cases in which a plaintiff’s claim has been dismissed because the United States or one of its agencies or officers lacked capacity to be sued, was improperly identified, or could not be joined as a...

The orders of most major independent regulatory agencies normally become enforceable automatically unless challenged in court. The statutory requirement that an order of the NLRB can be made effective only by affirmative action to obtain judicial confirmation of its terms, even when its validity is wholly uncontested, is contrary to efficient law enforcement. The...