‘The Decision of 1946: The Legislative Reorganization Act and the APA,’ with Joseph Postell and Jeremy Rabkin (Congress and the Administrative State Series)

Administrative Law scholars think of 1946 as the year that Congress enacted the Administrative Procedure Act. But too often we neglect another major law that Congress enacted in that year: the Legislative Reorganization Act.

The LRA was intended to position Congress for long-term management of the administrative state. But its proponents were disappointed to see major provisions dropped from the final bill, and after its enactment the LRA generally failed to live up to its framers’ expectations. How can the LRA inform debates about Congress today? And how should the LRA help us to understand the 1946 Congress’s goals for the APA itself?

Professor Joseph Postell of Hillsdale College explores this in his new Gray Center working paper, “The Decision of 1946: The Legislative Reorganization Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.” He discusses it in today’s episode with Adam White and with Jeremy Rabkin of the Antonin Scalia Law School.