ABSTRACT
The American political system is an organism whose many parts interact in intricate ways. That is one of the reasons that reforms of the system often have unintended consequences. The fact that reforms are difficult to control is no reason to flinch from facing our problems and taking steps to correct them. For a half century, beginning in the early 1930s, Congress often qualified its grants of discretionary authority to the executive by providing that administrators could act, subject to the power of Congress to void the action by adopting a resolution of disapproval. The device enabled Congress to grant broad powers without losing control. Changing the procedure for ratifying treaties is another reform that might become part of a package to readjust legislative-executive relations. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that legislative vetos were unconstitutional.
