Dakota Beacon

Question: Do federal departments or agencies exist to support the citizens? Or is it the other way around?

From the number of federal agencies operating within our constitutional government there has emerged a crossbreed or amalgamation of sorts called the administrative state. This hybrid combines the legislative, judicial, and executive functions within individual entities in opposition to the principle of separation of powers.

The first real coalition, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) founded in 1887, opened the way to what later became known as the administrative state. Subsequently, in the 1930s, the New Deal proliferated administrative agencies notably the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board), SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), FHA (Federal Housing Administration), FCC (Federal Communications Commission), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), SSB, now the SSA (Social Security Board, now the Social Security Administration), and many others. Even before the New Deal some rudimentary agencies already in existence would morph into the hybrid. These included IRS (Internal Revenue Service), USDA (Department of Agriculture), War Department, later DoD (Department of Defense), and State Department.

Subsequent to the New Deal additional agencies were added to the growing list. New departments recently created include FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Interior, and Health and Human Services (HHS). Within all of these departments exist sub-departments, bureaus, and agencies. Hundreds of federal departments and agencies exist although there is no authoritative list. So much for limited government.

These departments and agencies comprise a “fourth branch of government” loosely known as the administrative state. They are headed by presidential appointees who can only be removed, during their terms in office, by impeachment. Their regulations, which carry the force of law, require neither presidential nor congressional approval. Regulations go into effect automatically after being published in the Federal Register. People whose actions were displeasing to the government have been charged under such regulations.

The administrative state creates a greater body of law than Congress. These administrative agencies issue several thousand new regulations each year compared to Congress which rarely passes a thousand bills in one session.

We live under their rules and regulations. Most of these rules we don’t even know exist and have probably violated at one time or another. Federal departments and agencies have staffs that police their realms and fiefdoms enforcing their laws. Furthermore, the same departments and agencies also act as judge and jury for any person found displeasing to the government. It should be evident to even a casual observer that the importance of these regulatory agencies extends far out of proportion to their political accountability.

Federal departments and agencies regulate daily activities which cut across industries, businesses, schools, farms, and other institutions. They prescribe employment procedures under affirmative action protocols. They set and enforce environmental standards. They dictate occupational health and safety regulations. They determine the racial distribution of students and teachers in schools. All of this they do as the department or agency sees fit and they do it without oversight. Some agencies’ rules overlap thus reinforcing each other. Their processes go on undisturbed unless someone with enough wherewithal brings a court action. Even then the court may not accept the case if it does not regard the party as having “standing.”

To keep the bureaucracy in place requires money – a lot of money. Congress has no qualms about enacting trillion-dollar spending bills funded by – you guessed it -- the citizen. As pointed out earlier, the citizen may well exist to support the administrative state and not the other way around. Plus, the extraction of money from bill-paying citizens will be enforced.

No wonder a growing number of citizens have lost confidence in the federal government. But not enough citizens, apparently. A majority of citizens seem to approve of their administrative state-run government. These same citizens keep falling for the old political canards like “tax the rich.” And, they continue to re-elect the same senators and representatives year after year perpetuating and expanding the administrative state.

Afterthought: This review gives multiple meanings to the phrase, “Drain the swamp.”

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).