The Agency Snarl

Created by Congress in high hopes and great expectations, the independent regulatory agencies, the "fourth branch of Government," have long counted among Washington's most notorious messes--entangled in red tape, beset by lobbyists, tainted with scandal, and years behind on their work. Within days of his election John F. Kennedy appointed crusty New York Lawyer (and sometime dean of Harvard Law School) James McCauley Landis to look into the mess. Landis brought to the task plenty of firsthand experience in the regulatory-agency mazes. Back in New Deal days, he was a Federal Trade commissioner, then a Securities and Exchange commissioner, then SEC chairman (succeeding Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jack's father). Under Harry Truman he served two years as chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board.

Last week Landis submitted to the President-elect a stingingly frank 87-page report charging "inordinate delay" in cases before the regulatory agencies, "deterioration"' in the quality of personnel, total lack of coordination among the various agencies, and undue influence by lawyers and lobbyists serving clients with pending cases.* Among Landis' complaints: Civil Aeronautics Board is so bogged down in "wasteful" procedures that it takes an average of 32 months to get a case decided.

Securities and Exchange Commission, besides being "starved for appropriations," is excessively dependent on staff experts because some of the commissioners do not understand the intricacies of the securities business. Remedy: more knowledgeable commissioners.

Federal Communications Commission has "drifted, vacillated and stalled" and "seems incapable of policy planning." Evidence indicates that the radio and TV networks exercise "far too great an influence" over commission decisions.

Federal Power Commission "represents the outstanding example in the Federal Government of the breakdown of the administrative process." According to a recent estimate, it would take FPC, under present procedures, until A.D. 2043 to catch up with its work, even if the staff were tripled in size.

Landis calls for legislation authorizing the President to propose "reorganization plans" that would go into effect automatically unless vetoed by a resolution of both houses of Congress. He urges creation of machinery to coordinate the agencies and fit their activities into the administration--in short, to make the independent agencies less independent. The machinery, to be set up within the executive office of the President, would consist of three offices to develop national policies in the realms of transportation, communications and "energy," plus a fourth office to oversee all the regulatory agencies (but with no authority to intervene in particular pending cases).

Landis' proposals will doubtless run into opposition on Capitol Hill. In setting up the agencies, beginning with the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887, Congress deliberately insulated them from presidential control. The President names the members, but once appointed they have tenure for at least five years. In 1937 Congress rejected Franklin Roosevelt's plan to attach the independent agencies to Cabinet departments, and not until the Truman Administration came along did Congress grant the President the authority to name agency chair men (up until then, the agency chairman was usually elected by the commissioners themselves).

As for John F. Kennedy, he liked the Landis Report, appointed Landis a "special assistant" to work up detailed legislative proposals to be submitted to the new Congress.

* In November, at the very time he was digging dirt for his report, Landis was unsuccessfully trying to land a job as president of the Air Line Pilots Association with the argument that, while he had never been a pilot, he had been chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board and could represent the association's interests at CAB better than anybody else.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.