Responses to Reagan: Congressional Actions to Deny Executive Designs

This paper examines the legislative histories of six agencies that were slated for elimination during the Ronald Reagan administration. This research is a portion of a larger project that examines the histories of 14 agencies and disaggregates the steps Congress took to heed, modify, or defy Reagan’s intentions for each of the agencies. By tallying and examining the legislation introduced by Congress that related to the six agencies that survived Reagan’s chopping block, I find that agencies that survived were not likely to be reauthorized. Instead, in four of the six cases examined, only appropriations legislation that ensured continued funding to the agency was enacted. In the other two cases, the non-appropriations legislation that was introduced was often tangential to the mission, design, or operation of the agency. This research project underscores the need for additional research on the interaction between the legislative and executive branches, as well as additional exploration of the tools that Congress may use to exact its policy preferences. Specifically, more research needs to be conducted to determine the effects of appropriations legislation on congressional policymaking.