Steamboat Inspection Service
| Steamboat Inspection Service | |
| Basic facts | |
| Type: | Federal agency |
| Year founded: | 1852 |
| Connections | |
| U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Labor | |
The Steamboat Inspection Service (SIS) was a United States federal agency authorized to inspect ship hulls and other equipment, license officers and crews of vessels, and conduct investigations of potential violations of steamboat inspection laws.[1] Though the SIS had some features that resembled 20th-century administrative agencies, scholars debate whether its powers were as broad as those wielded by later agencies.[2] The Reorganization Plan No. III of 1946 formally abolished the SIS that year.[1][3][2]
Mission
A 1922 history of the Steamboat Inspection Service describes its purpose as follows:[1]
| “ | The United States Steamboat-Inspection Service, a bureau of the Department of Commerce, has, as its primary duty or function, the administration of the laws of the United States enacted for the purpose of safeguarding the lives of passengers on steamboats and other vessels engaged in marine transportation. In the performance of this important function, the service is chiefly engaged in three general types of work: (1) The inspection of the hulls, machinery, and equipment of vessels of the merchant marine of the United States made subject to such inspection by acts of Congress; (2) the licensing of the officers and the certification of the crews of such vessels; (3) the conduct of trials and investigations to ascertain violations of the steamboat-inspection laws and of the rules and regulations established for their proper administration. The activities of the service bring it into close contact with several large business interests of the nation as well as with millions of men, women, and children annually carried by vessels subject to its jurisdiction. Shipbuilders, manufacturers of marine equipment, iron and steel mills rolling material for the construction of boilers, and the manufacturers of marine boilers,—all are vitally interested in and affected by the work of this service.[4] | ” |
History
The Steamboat Inspection Service (SIS) got its start in the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the 1830s. Over time, Congress changed the structure and duties of the SIS until the Bureau of Customs and the Coast Guard took over its functions in 1942. The Reorganization Plan No. III of 1946 formally abolished the SIS.[1][5]
History highlights
- 1838: Court-appointed engineers began inspecting ships
- 1852: Steamboat Inspection Service (SIS) established within U.S. Department of the Treasury
- 1896: SIS leaders included in the civil service
- 1903: SIS supervision transferred from Department of the Treasury to the secretary of commerce and labor
- 1905: Laws passed that expanded SIS powers
- 1946: SIS abolished, Coast Guard and Bureau of Customs assumed duties
1838: Congress passes law governing steamship inspections
Under a law passed in 1838, engineers appointed by U.S. district court judges began inspecting ships. The law required steamship operators to do the following:[1][5]
- Employ experienced and skillful engineers
- Have annual hull inspections
- Have boiler inspections every six months
- Carry lifesaving equipment like lifeboats and fire hoses
Before they could carry passengers, steamship operators had to get a license certificate that reflected their compliance with the 1838 safety law. Ship owners paid judge-appointed inspectors to conduct the checks of their vessels and to issue license certificates. In addition, anyone employed on steamships where lives were lost could be found guilty of manslaughter.[1]
1852: Steamboat Inspection Service established
Congress formally established the Steamboat Inspection Service (SIS) as part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 1852. The Steamboat Act of 1852 established a board of nine supervising inspectors appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The supervising inspectors met yearly to establish uniform rules governing the inspection laws. Beyond meetings, the supervising inspectors monitored local inspectors within their districts and reported inefficiencies to the secretary of the treasury, who wielded removal power. The 1852 act also authorized the secretary of the treasury to receive reports from the supervising inspectors and to make recommendations to Congress. A historical account of the SIS from The Institute for Government Research claimed that initial opposition from steamship owners and operators to inspection laws changed when people traced later boating accidents to violations of those laws or SIS regulations. In an 1862 report, the board of supervising inspectors said that people generally accepted the utility of the steamship laws and expressed satisfaction at the results produced from following those laws.[1]
1871: Inspector general established for the Steamboat Inspection Service
In 1871, a new law placed the nine-member board of supervising inspectors under the office of a new supervising inspector-general, who reported to the secretary of the treasury. The president appointed the new inspector general with advice and consent of the Senate and the new board was granted authority "to establish all necessary rules and regulations required for the proper and uniform administration of the inspection laws, and such regulations, when approved by the secretary of the treasury, should have the full force of law." All steam-powered ships navigating U.S. waters that were common avenues of commerce were subject to the inspection laws. The law also extended legal protections for the officers and crews of steamships that previously only applied to passengers.[1]
A history compiled by the Institute for Government Research concluded that the establishment of a central office for the SIS under the 1871 law led to rapid developments connected to the direct influence the supervising inspector-general had over legislation.[1]
1896: Steamboat Inspection Service employees included in civil service
An executive order issued by President Grover Cleveland in 1896 placed all the employees of the SIS, except the supervising inspector-general and supervising inspectors, in the classified civil service. A law passed that same year set the duration of steamship licenses, defined "vessels of the United States," and required that officers of those vessels be U.S. citizens.[1]
Early 20th Century: Steamboat Inspection Service placed under the Commerce and Labor Department
In 1903, Congress transferred all of the powers given to the secretary of the treasury over the Steamboat Inspection Service to the newly established secretary of commerce and labor. Following the transfer of SIS from Treasury to Commerce and Labor supervision, the supervising inspectors recommended several changes to inspection laws but Congress did not enact them. A steamship fire that killed 957 people in New York in 1904 was blamed on inadequate SIS officers.
A series of amendments to the steamship inspection laws passed in 1905 that empowered the board of supervising inspectors to do the following:[1]
- Establish procedures for preventing or extinguishing fires (subject to secretary of commerce and labor approval)
- Set regulations governing the exact number and type of lifesaving devices to keep on ships (subject to secretary of commerce and labor approval)
- Hear appeals in cases where certificates of inspection or licenses were revoked by local inspection boards
The law also made these changes:[1]
- It placed assistant inspectors under the control and supervision of local inspectors
- It allowed the secretary of commerce and labor to move assistant inspectors from one port or district to another
- It defined the salaries of local inspectors by law instead of tying them to the number of vessels inspected
- It allowed the SIS and the secretary of commerce and labor to make changes to inspection and safety rules without waiting for Congress to act (subject to secretary of commerce and labor approval)[1]
Rule changes the SIS could make without congressional oversight had the force of law, but they only lasted 30 days beyond the end of the subsequent meeting of the board of supervising inspectors.[1]
1910 to 1930: Steamboat Inspection Service jurisdiction expanded
The Motor-Boat Act of 1910 placed boats propelled by machinery under the inspection jurisdiction of the SIS, and a 1913 law establishing the U.S. Department of Labor placed the SIS within the U.S. Department of Commerce.[1]
Other acts established an adjudication process under which anyone could challenge decisions made by local inspectors and bring questions before supervising inspectors or the supervising inspector-general. Laws empowered the supervising inspectors to investigate and decide questions in cases of disagreement among local boards. The supervising inspector-general had the final say, subject to approval by the secretary of commerce, when reviewing decisions made by both supervising and local inspectors. When officers reviewed inspections disputes, the law allowed them to administer oaths and compel the attendance of witnesses using a process similar to that of U.S. district courts.[1]
1946: Steamboat Inspection Service abolished
In 1932, Congress merged the SIS with the Bureau of Navigation to create the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection. That agency became the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation in 1936.[5]
A 1942 executive order transferred SIS responsibility for documenting merchant vessels to the Bureau of Customs. The executive order also put the U.S. Coast Guard in charge of merchant vessel inspection and safety. The Reorganization Plan No. III of 1946 formally abolished the SIS that year.[5]
SIS: Prototype for modern administrative agencies or limited executive functionary?
The Steamboat Inspection Service (SIS) might be an early example of the kind of agencies that are part of the modern administrative state. The SIS "combined something of the 'New Deal' independent, regulatory commission and 'Great Society' health and safety regulation by delegating administrative authority to a multimember Board that combined licensing, rulemaking, and adjudicatory functions," argued law professor Jerry L. Mashaw in a 2008 law review article.[3] That combination, according to Mashaw, laid the foundation for the administrative agencies created during and after the Progressive Era. In addition, Mashaw argued that the SIS used national power to regulate matters of personal safety, traditionally left to the states. He also said that the SIS "pioneered the development of regulation motivated by and based on new scientific understandings" since its safety rules involved the quality of boilers installed on ships.[3]
Political science professor Joseph Postell contested Mashaw's characterization of the SIS in a 2017 book, arguing that Congress did not give the SIS broad regulatory powers.[2] For Postell, the congressional debates surrounding the SIS revealed "important differences between the inspection system established by the law and the modern regulatory agencies that are prevalent today."[2] The debates involved discussions of details such as on which side ships should pass others through narrow channels. Postell cited those details as evidence that Congress did not intend to give the SIS the power to make expansive rules. He argued that "[a]dministrative discretion surely existed during the Jacksonian period, but administrators were typically limited by specific statutory provisions and legislative power was not transferred to administrative bodies."[2] Even if the SIS regulated health and safety like later agencies, the way it operated was different.
See also
- Executive Branch
- Administrative State Project
- Appointment and removal power (administrative state)
- Adjudication (administrative state)
- Rulemaking
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Institute for Government Research, "Steamboat-Inspection Service: Its History, Activities, and Organization," by Lloyd M. Short, accessed October 24, 2018, on https://archive.org/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Postell, J. (2017). "Bureaucracy in America: The Administrative State's Challenge to Constitutional Government". Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. (96-102)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jerry L. Mashaw, "Administration and 'The Democracy': Administrative Law from Jackson to Lincoln, 1829-1861," The Yale Law Journal 117 (2008), accessed December 19, 2018
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 National Archives, "Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation," accessed October 25, 2018
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
