ABSTRACT
The administrative agency is often a more meaningful site for public participation than Congress, because the policy stakes for individuals and interest groups are most immediate, transparent, and well-defined at the agency level. One can scarcely exaggerate the importance of this consideration to the legitimacy of democratic politics and to the substantive content of public policy. Congress possesses numerous formal and informal controls over agency discretion. The appropriations process sharply constrains the authority and discretion of agencies. These constraints are imposed through the language of the funding legislation, through formal committee and subcommittee oversight hearings, and through the frequent informal interactions between members and agency officials. The nondelegation doctrine is a prescription for judicial supervision of both the substance and forms of legislation and hence of politics and public policy, without the existence or even the possibility of any coherent, principled, or manageable judicial standards.
