CRS – Organizing Executive Branch Agencies: Structure and Delegations of Authority

Organizing Executive Branch Agencies: Structure and Delegations of Authority 05/02/2025. Cole, Jared P.; Shedd, Daniel T. “In early 2025, the Trump Administration issued executive orders that indicated that the White House may consider reorganizing certain executive branch agencies. In the ensuing months, the Trump Administration has embarked on efforts to restructure and downsize numerous agencies in the federal government. These developments have increased congressional interest in understanding the roles that Congress and the executive branch play in the composition of the federal government. The Constitution establishes roles for both the legislative branch and the executive branch regarding the operation and organization of federal agencies. Congress has significant authority pursuant to the Constitution to create and maintain federal offices and can structure the federal bureaucracy as it deems appropriate. Legislative enactments create executive agencies and delegate authority to those entities to carry out various statutory functions and duties. Meanwhile, appropriations legislation establishes congressional priorities by allotting resources to agencies to carry out their functions. As the head of the executive branch of government, the President implements and oversees the execution of the law. The President, therefore, has the power to establish agency policy priorities, exercise enforcement discretion, and execute permissive authorities as he deems appropriate and in accordance with the law. The President exercises control over executive agencies through his powers to appoint and supervise the officers that lead them. The President and the executive agencies created by Congress are bound by the laws creating the agencies and endowing them with authority to act. The Supreme Court has established that “agencies are creatures of statute” and “possess only the authority that Congress has provided.” Nat’l Fed’n of Indep. Bus. v. Dep’t of Lab., 595 U.S. 109, 117 (2022). Therefore, the Court has indicated that if an agency desires to reorganize its internal structure, it can only do so if Congress has authorized the action. Still, in establishing agencies, Congress often provides agency heads with a degree of discretion to structure their offices internally. Agencies rely on both agency-specific and generally applicable statutes to establish, modify, consolidate, or transfer offices within an agency. Just as laws may provide agencies with a degree of discretion in organizing their internal structure, agencies may also enjoy discretion with regard to reassigning statutory functions within the agency. Statutory authorizations often do not specify a particular office within the agency that must carry out a function and, instead, delegate authority to the agency head. At the same time, Congress has routinely authorized agency heads to delegate responsibilities to subordinate officers or employees within their departments. Thus, agency heads may also affect a reorganization by redelegating duties and functions to different offices within an agency as authorized by statute. Similarly, Congress often delegates authority directly to the President, rather than to a particular agency.

Congress has authorized the President to delegate many authorities vested in him to his subordinate officers. These delegations are not permanently fixed. Therefore, Presidents can reorganize functions vested in the presidency across agencies to comport with their policy preferences.Efforts to reorganize executive branch agencies through the structural modifications or transfers of statutory functions must align with existing statutory authorities. Courts may enjoin agency reorganizations that exceed the agency’s statutory authority…”