The Administrative Conference of the United States turns 50 years old in 2014.

The Conference officially came into being on August 30, 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Administrative Conference Act (Public Law 88-499) and established the agency on a permanent basis.  Previous temporary Conferences were convened by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and President John F. Kennedy, but the idea of an administrative agency devoted to improving the processes of government goes back as far as the Brownlow Commission created by President Roosevelt in 1936.

Now, 50 years on, we are still dedicated to improving the administrative process through consensus-driven applied research and providing nonpartisan expert advice and recommendations for making government work better.

I invite you to provide anecdotes about our history.  Let me start with one – as a young assistant law professor just starting at the University of North Carolina, I received a call from the Chairman, Antonin Scalia, asking if I would be an ACUS consultant. The resulting report “Judicial review of Informal Rulemaking,” was published in the Virginia Law Review and helped build my case for tenure. So I will always be indebted to my predecessor Chairman Scalia for getting me going in administrative law. 

We have a variety of programs and activities planned to celebrate this landmark anniversary of our agency.  Stay tuned to this website for updates throughout the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Council Member Walter Gellhorn talking to Paul Verkuil.  ACUS Senior Fellow Richard E. Wiley is in the background.  Photo circa mid-1980s.

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50th Anniversary