Presidential Reorganization Authority: Is It Worth the Cost?
The president's authority to propose executive reorganization plans to Congress, subject to veto in either house, expired 6 April 1981.1 Both houses, at the request of President Ronald Reagan, must once again consider the value of this process and the wisdom of extending it. Like most students of government, we had long assumed that the president's reorganization authority served the interests of both branches. The more we explored the subject, however, the more we doubted our preconceptions. As our research continued, we gained more respect and appreciation for the arguments against granting this power to the president. We now conclude that the drawbacks of the reorganization plan process are so serious, and the premises behind it so weak, that both branches would benefit by not renewing the authority. The nation functioned reasonably well throughout most of its history without the reorganization plan authority. Indeed, through at least a third of its fiftyyear existence, the reorganization plan authority has been allowed to lapse without any evident threat to the polity. In short, the law is not a critical element