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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
What is undoubtedly the most thorough and comprehensive study ever made of Federal administrative procedure was completed with the submission to the Attorney General, in a letter dated January 22, 1941, of the final report of the Committee named. In its investigation and report, the Committee confined its attention to those Federal agencies that substantially affect private interests by their powers of rule-making and adjudication. To the study of their procedures, it assigned a staff of lawyer-investigators, which produced 27 mimeographed monographs, 13 of which have been printed as Sen. Doc. No. 186, 76th Cong., 3d Sess. In its interim report of January 31, 1940, the Committee thus described the methods being employed in the preparation of these monographic studies: “They have involved extended interviews with officials and employees of the agencies involved, with members of the public affected, and with attorneys who have represented clients before these agencies. Members of the Committee's staff have attended numerous hearings and other administrative proceedings as observers, and have closely examined the files of the agencies to discover the methods utilized in disposing of matters arising under the various statutes and regulations. Upon the completion of these investigations, the staff has prepared for the study of the Committee a preliminary report upon each agency, discussing in detail its administrative procedures. The report has been given to the officers of the affected agency for their consideration and comment. Thereafter, the full Committee has met with the agency's officers to discuss with them the facts and problems disclosed by the report.” (Final Report, pp. 254–255). The Committee held public hearings in June and July, 1940. In Chapter IX of its final report, it presents recommendations concerning a number of the individual agencies studied; and in Appendices B through M, it summarizes data collected on significant topics.
1 Final Report of the Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure. (Washington: Government Printing Office. 1941. Pp. 474. $0.50. Also Sen. Doc. No. 8, 77th Cong., 1st Sess.) The committee was appointed on February 23, 1939. James W. Morris was later succeeded as chairman by Dean Acheson; and the Committee is commonly called the Acheson Committee. Its director was Walter Gell-horn, of the Columbia Law School, a leading authority on the law of administrative procedure. The Final Report was signed by these three and nine others: one judge (D. Lawrence Groner, chief justice of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia), two law deans (Lloyd K. Garrison of Wisconsin and E. Blythe Stason of Michigan), three law professors (Henry M. Hart of Harvard, Harry Shulman of Yale, and Ralph F. Fuchs of Washington University), and three other distinguished attorneys of varied experience (Francis Biddle, Carl McFarland, and Arthur T. Vanderbilt).
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