ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study that involve restricted applications of the legislative veto to the authority of the secretary of the Department of Transportation to develop occupant-restraint regulations, and the mandate of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to develop an incremental gas-pricing rule. The legislative veto provision in the Natural Gas Policy Act offered members of Congress a conflict-avoidance route out of the continuing natural gas controversy. Federal regulation of natural gas pricing stems from a 1954 Supreme Court Decision. Many members of Congress who have been vigorously opposed to broad uses of the legislative veto because of the potential for such off-the-record negotiations have, nevertheless, supported legislative vetoes when they were targeted to a specific delegation of rulemaking authority. Although the action ran contrary to President Carter's order that agencies ignore legislative vetoes, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's status as an independent agency exempted it from the president's direct control.
