Committee Controls of Agency Decisions

Publication Date: November 2005

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Abstract:

Congress has a long history of subjecting certain types of executive agency decisions to committee control, either by committees or subcommittees. Especially with the beginning of World War II, the executive branch agreed to committee controls as an accommodation that allowed Congress to delegate authority and funds broadly while using committees to monitor the use of that discretionary authority. These committee-agency arrangements took the form of different procedures: simply notifying the committee, obtaining committee approval, "coming into agreement" understandings, and using the congressional distinction between authorization and appropriation to exercise committee controls.

By the 1930s, the White House and the Justice Department began to object to committee-approval arrangements as an encroachment into executive duties and a violation of separation of powers. Litigation in the 1970s, supported by the Administration, resulted in the Supreme Court's decision INS v. Chadha (1983), striking down every form of legislative veto: two-house, one-house, committee, subcommittee, and chairman. The Court ruled that whenever Congress intends to exercise control over any action outside the legislative branch, it must comply with the regular constitutional requirements for lawmaking: action by both houses (bicameralism) and submission of a bill or joint resolution to the President for his signature or veto (Presentation Clause).

Notwithstanding this decision, agencies continue to fashion accommodations that settle some decisions at the level of committees and subcommittees. This type of arrangement is seen frequently in reprogramming procedures, where agencies seek committee/subcommittee approval before shifting certain types of funds within an appropriations account. A number of committee vetoes are also used outside the reprogramming process.

This report explains how and why committee vetoes originated, the constitutional objections raised by the executive branch, the Court's decision in Chadha, and the continuation of committee review procedures since that time. For a brief six-page treatment, see CRS Report RS22132, Legislative Vetoes After Chadha, by Louis Fisher. This report will be updated as events warrant.