POLICY AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Policy and public administration

Policy and public administration

Introduction

The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) governs how Federal agencies may establish regulations and requires that they inform the public of their procedures and rules. The APA requires federal agencies to provide for public participation in the rule making process, sets formal standards in rule making and administrative hearings, and requires judicial review of cases when hearing results are appealed. The APA was created to regulate and standardize federal agency procedures in response to expansive growth of federal governmental power following the end of the Great Depression and World War II. At President Franklin Roosevelts urging, Congress had enacted several statutes creating new federal agencies in 1933 as part of Roosevelts New Deal legislative plan, which was designed to help the United States recover from the Great Depression. This paper will examine the positive effects the APA has had on private citizens and on public administration of government agencies through public participation in the policymaking.

Discussion

The APA encourages public participation in the policymaking process and requires participation be made available to citizens before a rule may become public policy. Public agencies must allow for citizen participation. This is accomplished though means such as public hearings. The framers of the APA enacted the public participation procedure to increase citizen involvement in the policymaking process as a means to remedy the unchecked power of New Deal agencies.

The APA was put into law in 1946 with its primary goal being to Shape the relationship between the people and their government (Morrison, 1986, p. 253). It was initially conceived in 1939 with the appointment of the U.S. Attorney Generals Committee on Administrative Procedure to analyze the need for reform in federal agencies. Prior to the conclusion of the committees activities, Congress passed the Walter-Logan Bill to reform federal and state agency practices. The American Bar Association (ABA) supported the bill. In 1940, however, President Franklin Roosevelt vetoed the Walter-Logan Bill, citing the fact that the recommendations for administrative reform from the Attorney Generals Committee had yet to be formulated (Gellhorn, 1986).

In 1941 the Attorney Generals Committee filed its completed report. But reform efforts were delayed due to the United States entry into World War II. The Attorney Generals Report stated that there were no requirements of notice to the public and hearings or of consultation with outside interests. Citizens were not given notice of rule changes or the opportunity to comment on rule changes prior to the APA. The Attorney Generals Report found no evidence that agencies had scheduled public hearings or public meetings. This indicated that agencies did not allow the public to be represented in the policymaking process. Prior to the APA, communication between government agencies and the citizens they served was limited. The Attorney Generals Committee recommended that agencies give everyone affected by a process an opportunity to present their views. To aid this goal, the Attorney Generals Committee recommended that agencies make any relevant information available to the ...