ABSTRACT
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), before the advent of the consumer movement when it was called by detractors "The Little Old Lady of Pennsylvania Avenue, "was considered an arm of Congress and most suited to finding the factual material basic to legislation under consideration. Needful of being responsive to Congress, it was composed at that time of New Deal Democrats, individuals from Tennessee, and bureaucratic populists. The commission promulgated industrywide rules such as those implementing the Fur Products Labeling Act in 1951 only at the behest of Congress, elected and thus accountable legislative representatives. The legality of public interest group compensation for participation in FTC proceedings was now in question and class action provisions were being narrowed by the Supreme Court. Passage of the legislative veto was an effort to devise explicit means of re-establishing formerly implicit congressional agency control.
