ABSTRACT

Congress had the authority, in the interests of administrative efficiency, to legislate procedures to provide for fair dismissal review without placing a detrimental burden on the administrative process. According to Richard J. Pierce Jr., "The major effects of the Act were to satisfy the political will for reform, to improve and strengthen the administrative process, to enhance uniformity in the administrative process, and to preserve the basic limits upon judicial review of administrative action." In many respects, the federal APA symbolizes American commitment to fair administrative processes. The Administrative Procedure Act is a legislative weapon employed by Congress to promote democratic responsibility in administrative agencies, especially by limiting arbitrary and capricious agency actions and generally opening the administrative process to public scrutiny. Basically, the intent of Congress was to apply rule-of-law principles to the administrative process. In some decades state legislatures and, infrequently, the US Congress have implemented new ideas aimed at keeping the administrative process more democratically responsible.