Independent Agencies

Bodies created by Congress to serve a specified public purpose and to operate with more independence from the executive branch, as do executive agencies. Executive agencies are the other type of federal agencies and are administered within one of the following 14 executive departments: Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health & Human Services, Housing & Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veteran's Affairs. The first independent agency created in the United States was the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), created in 1886. There was a surge of independent agency creation during the New Deal era.

Independent agencies' independence is strengthened through the commissioner's staggered and fixed appointment terms, which usually overlap the President's, and the bipartisan requirement of a set maximum number of commissioners allowed from any one political party. The President still holds the same authority to choose the chairman of the commissioners of independent agencies, as he does for the executive agencies. A major difference between the two types of agencies is the power of the President to remove the commissioner. If it is an executive agency, the President may remove its commissioner at will. In contrast, a President may only remove an independent agency's commissioner for reasons delineated in the enabling legislation, resulting in less presidential control. This removal-for-cause requirement was established by the Supreme Court in Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1934). The Court ruled for the plaintiff, the estate of William E. Humphrey, who sued for back pay from the time Humphrey was removed as the commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had removed Humphrey for political reasons alone; Humphrey had been appointed by the previous President and was not considered a New Deal supporter. For more information, see Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1934) and Zwart and Verhey (2003).