Number: RL33151
Title: Committee Controls of Agency Decisions
Authors: Louis Fisher, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: This reports explains the origin, growth, and persistence of committee controls over executive agency decisions in the face of repeated legal and constitutional objections by various Administrations. By reviewing the origin of committee controls six to seven decades ago, one is better able to understand how and why these committee-agency relationships were forged, and why some committee-veto provisions have survived after the Supreme Court, in INS v. Chadha (1983), declared the legislative veto unconstitutional. What is interesting about the continuation of committee review procedures after Chadha is that they appear not merely in statutory provisions (objected to regularly by Presidents in their signing statements) but in agency budget manuals as well. That is, despite constitutional objections raised by Presidents and the Justice Department, executive departments and agencies have found it both practicable and necessary to submit certain proposals to designated committees for their review and approval.
Pages: 31
Date: November 16, 2005