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Independent federal agency

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Independent federal agency is a term used to describe an executive agency that operates with some degree of autonomy from the executive branch. These agencies are generally headed by a commission or board made up of five to seven members. According to the Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies, a study produced by the Administrative Conference of the United States and Vanderbilt University, independent federal agencies generally fall into one of the two following categories:[1][2][3]

  • An independent federal agency may be defined as any agency established outside of the Executive Office of the President or the 15 executive departments. Since these agencies are not required to report to a higher official within the executive branch, such as a department secretary, they may be considered independent.
  • An independent federal agency may also be defined as an agency in which the top official has cause removal protections and, therefore, is insulated from political interference by the president or other elected officials. According to the Sourcebook, cause removal protections ensure that "political appointees cannot be removed except 'for cause,' 'inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,' or similar language."

Humphrey's Executor v. United States

See also: Humphrey's Executor v. United States

In Humphrey's Executor v. United States, a 1935 case before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the president's authority to remove an official of the Federal Trade Commission, the Supreme Court identified the following characteristics of an independent federal agency:

“ Such a body cannot in any proper sense be characterized as an arm or an eye of the executive. Its duties are performed without executive leave, and, in the contemplation of the statute, must be free from executive control. To the extent that it exercises any executive function -- as distinguished from executive power in the constitutional sense -- it does so in the discharge and effectuation of its quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial powers, or as an agency of the legislative or judicial departments of the Government.[4][5] ”

List of independent federal agencies

The May 2018 edition of the Sourcebook identified the following 80 federal agencies that demonstrate the characteristics of an independent federal agency:[6]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Breger, Marshall J. and Edles, Gary J. (2015). Independent Agencies in the United States: Law, Structure, and Politics New York, New York: Oxford University Press. (pages 1-7)
  2. ↑ Administrative Conference of the United States, "Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies," May 2013
  3. ↑ JUSTIA, "Independent Agencies," accessed July 5, 2018
  4. ↑ JUSTIA, "Humphrey's Executor v. United States 295 U.S. 602 (1935)," accessed July 18, 2017
  5. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  6. ↑ Administrative Conference of the United States, "Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies - Second Edition," October 2018
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