Principles of Federal Appropriations Law - US Government ...

Chapter 3
Agency Regulations
and Administrative
Discretion
Contents
3. The Limits of Literalism: Errors in Statutes and “Absurd
Consequences” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-78
a. Errors in Statutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-78
(1) Drafting errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-78
(2) Error in amount appropriated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-80
b. Avoiding “Absurd Consequences” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-80
4. Statutory Aids to Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-83
a. Definitions, Effective Dates, and Severability Clauses . . . . . . 2-83
b. The Dictionary Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-83
c. Effect of Codification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-84
5. Canons of Statutory Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-85
a. Construe the Statute as a Whole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-85
b. Give Effect to All the Language: No “Surplusage” . . . . . . . . . . 2-87
c. Apply the Common Meaning of Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-89
d. Give a Common Construction to the Same or Similar Words 2-89
e. Punctuation, Grammar, Titles, and Preambles Are Relevant but
Not Controlling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-92
f. Avoid Constructions That Pose Constitutional Problems . . . 2-94
6. Legislative History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-96
a. Uses and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-96
b. Components and Their Relative Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-98
(1) Committee reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-98
(2) Floor debates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-100
(3) Hearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-102
c. Post-enactment Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-103
d. Development of the Statutory Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-105
7. Presumptions and “Clear Statement” Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-106
a. Presumption in Favor of Judicial Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-106
b. Presumption against Retroactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-108
c. Federalism Presumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-111
d. Presumption against Waiver of Sovereign Immunity . . . . . . 2-113
A. Agency Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
1. The Administrative Procedure Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
a. The Informal Rulemaking Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4
b. Informal Rulemaking: When Required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9
c. Additional Requirements for Rulemaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13
2. Regulations May Not Exceed Statutory Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16
3. “Force and Effect of Law” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18
4. Waiver of Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-20
5. Amendment of Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-24
Page vii GAO-04-261SP Appropriations Law—Vol. I