“Nor should we omit in our study [of public administration] the
problem of legislative-administrative relations, in view of the
increasing role of the public servant in the determination of
policy, through either the preparation of legislation or the making
of rules under which general legislative policy is given meaning and
application” (Gaus 1931, 123).
In the title of his 1993 Gaus Award Lecture, Francis Rourke posed the
deceptively simple question, “Whose Bureaucracy Is This, Anyway?”
His subtitle was “Congress, the President, and Public
Administration.” Rourke, a pioneer in the field of bureaucratic
politics, concluded that federal administration was constitutionally
and politically under the “joint custody” of Congress and the
president. Clearly, Congress has formidable constitutional authority
and responsibility for the structure and operation of the executive
branch. A great deal of political science research demonstrates that
the legislature and its committees are a major political force in
federal administration. Even as the older “iron triangle” model
gives way to newer approaches, no one (other than misguided
reformers) could reasonably answer Rourke's question and exclude
Congress. Its oversight, influence, and intervention in agency
operations on behalf of policy objectives and incumbency are central
features of contemporary federal administration.