ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature of American bureaucracy and federal agencies. It also reviews the slow creation of the federal bureaucracies and traces their development through the twentieth century. The chapter considers how Congress uses the organizing power to keep the bureaucracy focused on congressional desires. It also discusses with an assessment of Congress's use of the power of organization. The chapter focuses on how Congress uses its power to organize the bureaucracy to enforce its own policy goals. The structure of the executive branch reflects generations of congressional decisions about what policies matter enough to pursue. Congress has continued to use its organizing power to refine the structure and mission of the executive branch's many agencies, adding new ones when situations warrant. For instance, Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 to track compliance with the antipollution statutes passed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
