Article I, section 1, of the Constitution provides that all legislative authority of the United States rests with Congress. There is no mention of agency rule-making power in the Constitution. Regardless, the Supreme Court has permit-ted delegations of legislative authority to executive officers since the earliest days of the Republic. In the early years, however, the Supreme Court was reluctant to acknowledge that it was legislative authority that was being delegated.

The situation changed during the 1930s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s set of programs intended to address The Great Depression, known as the New Deal, led to the creation of many new federal agencies, each with a broad delegation of authority. Because of the need to confront the serious economic crisis quickly, much of the enabling legislation was hurriedly drafted, poorly written, and involved delegations on a scale the nation had not experienced before.