National Petroleum Refiners Association v. Federal Trade Commission/Appendix

by J. Skelly Wright

APPENDIX

THE 1914 CONGRESSIONAL DEBATES INVOLVING TRADE COMMISSION RULE-MAKING POWER

The result we reach in this case might be different if we were convinced that the legislators who worked out the details of the Federal Trade Commission Act had carefully focused on the implications of rule-making power and given a clear indication that they rejected its use except for purely procedural purposes. We have examined the legislative history -- the debates and reports -- with considerable care and have analyzed appellees' arguments based on that history. We find that on the question of rule-making the leading proponents of the legislation in both Houses spoke ambiguously. The scope of the Commission's power to make rules was not a central issue in the lengthy debate, and the occasional comments to which we are referred by appellees as demonstrating a firm contrary intent on the part of those most familiar with the details of the legislation turn out, on close inspection, to be most sensibly interpreted in ways other than those urged on us.

I. Consideration in the House of President Wilson's 1914 Proposal.

Two days after President Wilson's 1914 message to Congress, the Administration's plan for a trade commission was introduced in both Houses of Congress. Sponsored by Congressman Clayton of Alabama and Senator Newlands, the bill^[1] essentially provided for an investigatory commission, clothed with power to compel reports on corporations and business and financial practices and to recommend prosecution under the antitrust laws. The proposed agency lacked any independent power to order a halt to business practices involving a violation of law. The agency did have the power, upon the initiative of the Attorney General, to assist him in framing antitrust settlements and, upon the request of federal judges trying antitrust cases, to make findings involving questions in pending litigation as well as to assist in framing decrees. The Clayton-Newlands bill was modified somewhat in the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. The bill reported out, drafted by Congressman Covington,^[2] deleted the authority contained in the original proposal to allow the commission to recommend antitrust prosecutions, but otherwise was closely similar to the bill originally proposed. The Committee majority explicitly rejected "the establishment of a commission having powers of regulation or control of prices, or the power directly to issue orders controlling the lawful operations of industrial business in this country."^[3]

The Covington bill did, however, include a section granting the commission authority to "make rules and regulations [p699] and classifications of corporations" in order to carry out the bill's other provisions, but it was agreed that this merely gave the commission power to elaborate in detail which businesses would be subject to its reporting requirements. See 51 CONG. REC. (Part 9) 8842-8844 (1914) (statement of Congressman Covington); id. at 9047-9048 (statement of Congressman Towner of Iowa).^[4]

Little that occurred in the House debate up to the passage on June 5 of the Covington bill, still formally backed by the President, bears directly on the issue before us. The proposed commission was given no power to approve or disapprove particular business practices according to a legal standard, and thus the question of utilizing substantive rule-making in aid of adjudication was submerged under the broader question whether the commission should have any independent enforcement authority at all.

This is not to say that the House wholly ignored the question of independent enforcement authority for the commission. Five Republican members of the Committee, while accepting the Covington bill, noted pointedly that it did not follow the approach of the 1912 GOP platform, which had proposed having the commission assume some of the antitrust functions currently exercised by the courts, an undoubted reference to plans that the agency should have power to bring cases, hear evidence, make findings, and promulgate orders enforceable in federal courts. Representative Stevens of New Hampshire dissented from the majority on the Committee and berated the Covington bill for failing to give the commission "general power to prevent unfair competitive practices" in order to correct what he saw as the "disappointing" results of relying wholly on Justice Department prosecutions in the federal courts, which he characterized as a "slow, costly process."^[5] Stevens' own proposal to give the commission independent adjudicatory power, H.R. 15660, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. (1914), did not appear to contemplate use of substantive rules promulgated separately from the hearings he proposed to order corporations to halt practices constituting "unfair or oppressive competition." Instead, he viewed "unfair or oppressive competition" as a "question of fact to be decided by the commission the same way [on a case-by-case basis] that the Interstate Commerce Commission decides what rates and practices of the railroads are unreasonable and unfair."^[6] When Stevens attempted to bring his bill to the floor, he was ruled out of order. 51 CONG. REC. (Part 9) at 9062. An even stronger amendment introduced by Representative Murdock of Kansas not only gave the commission power to halt "unfair or oppressive competition," but also provided a list of practices defining the term and authorized the commission, in some circumstances, to assume price-fixing power to halt monopoly. Id. at 9050-9051. This proposal, too, was rejected. Id. at 9055.

The question whether the commission should have power to define rules of business conduct through non-adjudicatory proceedings also surfaced, but proposals to give the commission such power were rejected.^[7] The debate on such [p700] plans was perfunctory, probably because it was clear that the majority of the House supported the concept of a weak commission without any enforcement or independent rule-making authority. At this early stage in the deliberations, it seemed to make little difference to the majority behind the Covington bill that some opponents, like Stevens, backed a commission with purely adjudicatory powers and others, principally Progressives like Murdock and Lafferty, preferred an agency relying on a combination of adjudication and substantive rule-making. Thus, while we occasionally give weight to positive rejections of amendments by Congress, see e. g., National Automatic Laundry & Cleaning Council v. Shultz, 143 U.S.App.D.C. 274, 291, 443 F.2d 689, 706 (1971), we believe we are justified here in concluding that the rejection of rule-making proposals did not necessarily represent a rejection of rule-making as a distinctive technique of agency regulation, but could just as easily, if not more persuasively, be interpreted as a broader rejection of a commission with any independent enforcement power. Cf. United States v. Wise, 370 U.S. 405, 411, 8 L. Ed. 2d 590, 82 S.C.t. 1354 (1962).

For our purposes, it is enough to note that opponents of the President's initial plan who argued for a stronger commission agreed broadly that continued reliance on the courts for adjudication of cases involving anticompetitive practices was an inadequate solution. Representative Dillon of South Dakota, for example, proposed that a commission have power to make rules regulating "future conduct" and enforcement power to issue orders against breaches of such rules as well as breaches of a broad standard of "any misconduct, unfair methods, unfair competition, acts of oppression, or acts of deception." 51 CONG. REC. (Part 9) at 9056. His proposal would seem on its face to contemplate a commission utilizing rule-making to specify standards of improper conduct under a broad standard and then adjudication as a mode of enforcing such standards in cases where they applied. He went so far as to reject almost all further judicial participation in the task of restoring free competition, arguing in accustomed terms:

"The attempt to control the corporations through the judiciary will fail. The judiciary with its delays, its technicalities, and uncertainties is wholly inadequate to regulate or control the trusts and combinations. The legislative department of government does not need the aid of the courts in regulating legislative or administrative matters. * * *"

Ibid.

II. Consideration in the Senate of President Wilson's Revised Proposal.

After the Covington bill passed the House, it went to the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce whose chairman, Senator Newlands, had been an original sponsor of the President's trade commission plan. Within a few days of the House vote, however, the President radically altered his view as to the proper extent of the commission's powers. No longer did he support the Covington bill's conception of a commission without [p701] independent enforcement power. In a turnabout, he now backed legislation giving the agency power to order a halt to unfair competition practices after holding a hearing and making findings.^[8] Historians^[9] are broadly agreed on the rationale for the President's switch of position. As part of his package of economic reform legislation, which included the plan for a weak trade commission, the President was supporting legislation to make more specific the antitrust laws' prohibitions. This latter bill was introduced by Congressman Clayton of Alabama and ultimately became the Clayton Act.^[10] In its original form, the Clayton bill laid out a series of new prohibitions on anticompetitive behavior, provided for Justice Department enforcement of the new rules, and provided criminal penalties for violations.^[11] This bill passed the House on June 5, the same day as the Covington bill providing for a new trade commission.^[12] But the Clayton bill received widespread criticism, not only from businessmen and their legislative backers who resented the provisions for criminal penalties, but also from those supporting tightening of the rules of antitrust. The reformers' argument was that the task of defining in statutory terms all possible restraints of trade injurious to competition was essentially Sisyphean, that businessmen were sufficiently clever to invent new forms of trade restraint that would escape the coverage of the Clayton bill's provisions.^[13] The President was apparently [p702] receptive to this criticism of the Clayton bill. Moreover, he was also apparently receptive to criticism of the traditional practice of relying exclusively on the Justice Department and the courts for antitrust enforcement. Thus he dealt with these two types of criticism by radically changing and expanding the role he had originally planned for the commission. Now it would be given independent authority to enforce through adjudicatory proceedings a broad standard of illegality that, unlike the specific terms of the Clayton bill, could be adapted to the variety of business practices with anticompetitive effects.^[14]

The leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee was informed of the President's change of heart and promptly pushed through the Committee onto the floor legislation embodying the new plan. But the bill reported out clearly did not embrace the exercise of substantive rule-making power. The bill that passed the House had a separate section giving the commission power to make rules and regulations to define the scope of its investigatory authority.^[15] But the new bill reported out of the Commerce Committee by Senator Newlands which gave the commission, at the behest of the President, new enforcement authority contained no grant of any rule-making power.^[16] What the Committee apparently had in mind was a quasi-judicial agency, elaborating the Committee bill's statutory standard of illegality -- "unfair competition" -- on a purely case-by-case basis. This view of the bill that emerged on the Senate floor after the Administration decided to support a commission with expanded power is amply supported by statements by the bill's proponents on the Senate floor, see 51 CONG. REC. (Part 11) 11178 (1914) (statement of Senator Hollis); 51 CONG. REC. (Part 13) 12916-12917 (1914) (statement of Senator Cummins); 51 CONG. REC. (Part 13) at 13317 (statement of Senator Walsh), as well as statements by critics of the bill, see 51 CONG. REC. [p703] (Part 11) at 11181 (statement of Senator Thomas). See also S. Rep. No. 597, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 13 (1914).

In other words, we believe the Commission's position can draw no support from the Senate's deliberations over the bill granting the Commission enforcement power that emerged from the Senate Commerce Committee following President Wilson's change of heart. The bill that emerged from the Committee contained no provision even remotely supporting the exercise of commission rule-making power to define the statutory standard of illegality contained in the section of the bill granting the agency adjudicatory authority. Moreover, during the debate over the Commerce Committee's bill Senator Newlands, Committee chairman and the bill's floor manager, argued that the legislation before the Senate encompassed "no powers except those conferred by this bill," 51 CONG. REC. (Part 12) at 11602, further supporting our view of this aspect of the deliberations. To be sure, the bill that emerged from the Senate Commerce Committee was amended in a few respects on the Senate floor prior to passage and submission to a House-Senate conference committee. But none of these amendments can be read as supporting rule-making power.^[17]

[p704]

III. The Conference Committee Deliberations and Final Floor Debates.

Because the Senate bill lacked any rule-making provision and the House bill did not give the commission power to enforce a statutory standard of legality, the most important aspect of the legislative debate for our purposes occurred after the conference committee met and composed the differences between the two bills. It was only at this point that a rule-making provision was inserted which might justify the promulgation of rules defining the kinds of practices that breached the bill's standard of illegality. As we have pointed out, the House bill included a rule-making provision, but granted the commission no power to enforce a standard of legality. The Senate bill, by contrast, had no rule-making provision, but did include a standard of legality to be enforced by the commission. The conference bill put both types of provisions together in a single bill. We believe the rule-making provision, Section 6(g), justifies promulgation of standards defining with specificity the meaning of the statutory standard of legality in Section 5, a standard enforceable in subsequent agency adjudications.

Appellees insist that, since neither bill prior to conference granted the commission power to issue rules defining the statutory standard of illegality, the conference committee was barred by rules of congressional procedure from inserting this supplemental power. The leader of the House conferees, Congressman Covington, told the House that the bill produced by the conference was "within the limits of conference." 51 CONG. REC. (Part 15) 14925 (1914). Senator Newlands, his Senate counterpart, pointed out, likewise, that the conference product was "entirely within the range of difference between the Senate and the House." Id. at 14769. Thus we have the leaders of the House and Senate conferees assuring the Congress that the conference bill complied with conference limitations and the Congress accepting that assurance. More important, the assurance given the Congress by Covington and Newlands appears well founded. The original House bill contained a rule-making provision granting authority roughly commensurate with the powers of investigation the committee was then designed to have. While the Senate bill deleted any such authority, we believe it can be persuasively argued that by reinserting a rule-making provision into the stronger commission bill all the conference did was reinstate the principle of the House bill as to rule-making -- that is, permitting the commission to exercise authority roughly commensurate with its other powers, great or small. In this sense, the insertion of Section 6(g), as interpreted here, does no violence to the principle limiting the authority of the conference. Moreover, while this general principle of germaneness as to the powers of a conference may bind Congress, it has never bound the courts, which have frequently faced the problem of interpreting legislation in light of conference changes. Cf. St. Regis Paper Co. v. United States, 368 U.S. 208, 221-222, 82 S.C.t. 289, 7 L. Ed. 2d 240 (1961).

Unfortunately, the crucial debates and reports on the bill produced by the conference, passed by both Houses, signed into law by the President, and continuing as the agency's basic organic statute today do not illuminate the meaning of Section 6(g). The House conference committee report does not mention the provision. See H.R. Rep. No. 1142, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. (1914). It is true, as appellees suggest, that the statement of [p705] the House managers in the conference report contains some remarks that might be interpreted to limit the commission to adjudication in working out the meaning and applicability of the statutory standard. But we do not read their comments involving application of the Section 5 prohibition against unfair competition to "particular business situations" or their comment that the unfairness of any particular practice "generally depends upon the surrounding circumstances of the particular case" as necessarily foreclosing the use of rule-making to confine issues to be adjudicated and to give specificity to the standard of illegality. Id. at 19.

In our judgment, such comments should be interpreted in light of the managers' argument that, in framing a broad standard of unfairness rather than making an item-by-item listing of impermissible practices, the conference felt that such detailed legislative definitions would not "fit business of every sort in every part of this country." Ibid. To us, this means that Congress, at the time, felt that different practices in different industries or even similar practices in different industries would often warrant varying treatment by the commission. This is hardly tantamount to saying that practices of individual firms within the same industry necessarily warrant distinctive, individualized treatment, as appellees would have it. To say this, of course, is to suggest by implication that individual adjudications warrant only minimal precedential value and there is ample reason to believe that the legislators felt otherwise. As the bill's leading proponent, Senator Newlands, said: "We will build up through this commission a system of administrative law that will be as well and thoroughly accepted as to trade as are the decisions of our Interstate Commerce Commission regarding transportation, and we will bring peace and security to the business world." 51 CONG. REC. (Part 11) at 11086.

In our view, the House managers' comments do not foreclose promulgation of substantive rules applicable to practices in a sector of an industry, throughout an industry, or in several industries at large. Rather, they suggest that the commission should administer any rules it might promulgate in much the same way that courts have ordinarily required other agencies to administer rules that operate to modify a regulated party's rights to a full hearing involving application of a statutory standard broader than the rule to his own particular circumstances. That is, some opportunity must be given for a defendant in a Section 5 proceeding to demonstrate that the special circumstances of his case warrant waiving the rule's applicability, as where the rationale of the rule does not appear to apply to his own situation or a compelling case of hardship can be made out. See text of the opinion at (slip op.) pages 37-38 supra and cases and materials cited therein. So long as the FTC makes available a "safety valve procedure" of this sort, in other words, we cannot see any conflict between the use of substantive rule-making and the concerns evidenced in the House managers' conference report that the commission should not treat varying business practices or defendants in a fashion that fails to appreciate relevant distinctions among them. This question of when waiver is appropriate or what procedures for waiver are required is not here before us. We have only the question of rule-making power vel non under the 1914 Act, but we do not believe the House managers' statements preclude the Commission's power to grant waivers of substantive rules under particularized circumstances.

The comparative print prepared by Senator Newlands to illustrate the differences and changes among the three bills -- one passed in the House, one in the Senate, and one produced by the conference -- is also cryptic on the rule-making question, but assuredly it does not support appellees' arguments. Indeed, it undercuts them seriously. First, the print suggests that the conference bill deleted the rule-making authority granted [p706] in Section 8 of the House bill which, as we have seen, pertained to the characteristics of corporations that would be required to submit reports to the commission. S. Doc., Comparative Print, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 15 (1914). This suggests that Section 6(g) was entirely new and thus can be assumed to have a different, broader scope than the House bill's provision, particularly since there is no cross reference from Section 6(g) to the authority granted in the House bill. Id. at 12. Support for giving Section 6(g) a broad reading may also be derived from the committee's deletion of the "to wit" language in Section 5 in the sentence immediately preceding specification of the hearing, findings, and cease and desist procedure. Since "to wit" came before the procedures spelled out and at the end of a sentence mandating the commission to prevent "unfair competition" in the Senate bill, it can be argued that, by deleting the phrase, the conferees meant that the task of elaborating the statutory standard might be accomplished by means other than adjudication alone.

But it would be a mistake to press these inferences too far. They show only that evidence of clear congressional rejection or approval of substantive rule-making is scanty on both sides and not compelling. The same conclusion applies to the paucity of comments arguably pertaining to the scope of the agency's rule-making power that occurred in the debates in both Houses prior to final passage. As we read the legislative record, including the comments cited to us by both parties, it seems clear to us that the question of promulgating rules to elaborate the statutory standard and then relying on them in subsequent adjudications was a practice that simply failed to preoccupy those engaging in the post-conference debates. The Senate debates were brief, largely focusing on the question whether the conference committee had made any serious changes in the Senate-passed bill. The floor managers, perhaps seeking to speed passage, argued that only two changes of any moment were made: first, altering the statutory standard from "unfair competition" to "unfair methods of competition," which was said by Senator Cummins of Iowa, a leading proponent of the bill and a member of the conference, to make no difference in the scope of the commission's authority; and second, expanding the scope of judicial review of agency orders from that contemplated in the Senate bill. 51 CONG. REC. (Part 15) at 14768. While such comments would obviously cut against the Commission's claim here, it is clear that the Senators did not entirely agree on this limited characterization of the conference's work. Indeed, Senator Thomas of Colorado argued that it "in many respects is an entirely new bill." Ibid. And one early commentator, a lawyer for the National Association of Manufacturers, suggested that Section 6(g) might well be viewed as a mandate for broad rule-making authority, commenting that while he felt the commission lacked power to "draft a code" of business behavior, there was a "prevalent notion to the contrary." J. EMERY, A HANDBOOK OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT (pamphlet, 1915, on file at FTC).

The District Court's opinion and appellees place considerable reliance on a series of comments made on the House floor during the final debate.^[18] But we have examined these remarks carefully [p707] and must reject the conclusion that they demonstrate a clear intent to preclude substantive rule-making. To us, they seem addressed to the issue whether the commission might have price-fixing power, a proposal that had been offered earlier in the initial House debates on the Covington bill and rejected. In the final debates Congressman Covington, the conference bill's floor manager, described "unfair methods of competition," the statutory standard, as a "vital, elastic principle," and suggested that it would be "expanded" much in the same manner as the law of negligence, fraud, and restraint of trade had been. However, he did not suggest that adjudication alone was the only means by which the commission would do so. See 51 CONG. REC. (Part 15) at 14928.

But appellees argue that his subsequent comments demonstrate that this is clearly what he meant. True, in discussing the scope of judicial review of the commission's orders, he carefully differentiated the FTC's power to issue cease and desist orders from the ICC's power to order new railroad rates, suggesting that limited judicial review was appropriate in the latter case, but not in the former, since it was unquestioned at the time that the ICC, in prescribing rates, was performing an essentially "legislative" task, with immediate effect, while the FTC's essentially prohibitive orders followed adjudicatory proceedings and thus warranted more stringent review. In a quote relied upon by appellees, he went on to say:

"The Federal trade commission will have no power to prescribe the methods of competition to be used in future. In issuing its orders it will not be exercising power of a legislative nature. The basis, therefore, upon which the validity of the 'narrow' court review provided by the Hepburn Act rests will be lacking.

"The function of the Federal trade commission will be to determine whether an existing method of competition is unfair, and, if it finds it to be unfair, to order the discontinuance of its use. In doing this it will exercise power of a judicial nature. Under the Constitution power to act finally in a judicial capacity can be conferred only upon a court. * * *"

Id. at 14932.

We do not believe this quote forecloses the Commission's claim here. For the power to frame substantive rules, in the context of the FTC, is hardly tantamount to the ICC's power to issue orders specifying the prices railroads must thereafter charge. The rules the FTC proposes to issue are not ICC-type orders operating immediately on a designated class of parties at all. They are merely norms which, in the absence of agency-brought proceedings to enforce them, have no legal effect whatever. This is not even a case where the rule alone is determinative of a business' rights without more, as in United States v. Storer Broadcasting Co., 351 U.S. 192, 100 L. Ed. 1081, 76 S.C.t. 763 (1956), where applicability of the rule meant that rights to a hearing on additional television licenses might well be cut off. Nor is this a case where a party is penalized in the event he loses at either the FTC or the appellate review level. At this point he may comply and avoid further liability. In other words, there is ample opportunity to test the rule in advance of penalty proceedings. Compare Oklahoma Operating Co. v. Love, 252 U.S. 331, 64 L. Ed. 596, 40 S.C.t. 338 (1920); Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 52 L. Ed. 714, 28 S.C.t. 441 (1908). Here, the practical efficacy of the rule depends on further Commission action through a complaint, hearing, findings, and order, and then judicial review. Thus, while the kind of rules the FTC may issue may properly be denominated "legislative" in the sense that once they are approved by reviewing courts they [p708] state binding propositions of law, they are not exercises of "power of a legislative nature" in the ICC sense in which Congressman Covington was plainly speaking.

This view of Congressman Covington's remarks is buttressed by a reading of one of the cases on which he relied to rebut arguments that the grant of power to the commission to enforce and elaborate the standard of illegality was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. United States v. Grimaud, 220 U.S. 506, 55 L. Ed. 563, 31 S.C.t. 480 (1911), upheld a criminal prosecution for a violation of regulations promulgated by the Secretary of Agriculture under the Forest Reserve Act. Entrusted with the duty under the statute of safeguarding the public forest reserves, the Secretary was empowered by the statute to make regulations controlling access to the reserves and activities carried on in them, violations of which were to be criminally punishable. Although the power to declare what amounted to substantive criminal law was plainly unusual, the Supreme Court upheld the regulations, pointedly arguing that they were to be considered "administrative" rather than "legislative" and thus lawful:

"That 'Congress cannot delegate legislative power [to the President] is a principle universally recognized as vital to the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution.' Field v. Clark, 143 U.S. 649, 692, 36 L. Ed. 294, 12 S.C.t. 495. But the authority to make administrative rules is not a delegation of legislative power, nor are such rules raised from an administrative to a legislative character because the violation thereof is punished as a public offense.

* * *

"The Secretary of Agriculture could not make rules and regulations for any and every purpose. * * * All relate to matters clearly indicated and authorized by Congress. The subjects as to which the Secretary can regulate are defined. * * *"

220 U.S. at 521-522. See also Union Bridge Co. v. United States, 204 U.S. 364, 385-387, 27 S.C.t. 367, 51 L. Ed. 523 (1907) (upholding authorization to Secretary of War to order bridge improvements under the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act and criminal prosecution for refusal to obey his order). These cases, on which Covington relied in his discussion distinguishing the FTC from the ICC, see 51 CONG. REC. (Part 15) at 14932-14933, indicate clearly that, to the extent the FTC might have rule-making power, a specific question to which he did not address himself, this power would certainly be categorized in the parlance of the time as "administrative" rather than "legislative," a rubric whose meaning at the time was confined to the rate-making function. See Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., 211 U.S. 210, 226-227, 53 L. Ed. 150, 29 S.C.t. 67 (1908), another case noted in Covington's discussion. 51 CONG. REC. (Part 15) at 14932-14933. Thus we believe we are on solid ground in concluding that Covington's remarks, when understood in light of the legal assumptions that clearly bound him, should not be read as either an implicit or an explicit denial of the kind of substantive rule-making power at issue before us.

Appellees also rely heavily on a colloquy between Congressman Sherley of Kentucky and Congressman Stevens of Minnesota, reprinted in the footnote below.^[19] Their discussion seems most accurately interpreted much as we have interpreted Congressman Covington's. In both cases the reference point of comparison was the ICC's power to issue affirmative orders specifying future rates. [p709] As we said earlier, substantive rules of the kind at issue here are not to be compared with definitely binding ICC rate orders. They are merely preliminary guidelines for business behavior on the basis of which, after the facts are found and no basis for waiver is established, the Commission may issue prohibitory cease and desist orders. While it is true that the Administrative Procedure Act today lumps together the kinds of rules the FTC proposes to issue and "the approval or prescription for the future of rates" under the denomination "rule," 5 U.S.C. § 551(4) (1970), it is clear that the understanding of those who focused on the question in 1914 saw a clear distinction between them. Thus we decline to conclude that the clear references in the final House floor debate to the ICC's rate-making power should be extrapolated to cover the issuance of substantive rules enforceable only in agency adjudication. The utterly unhelpful quality of the floor comments is underscored by Congressman Stevens' remarks. If one ignores the "legislative" -- "administrative" technical distinction which influenced Covington and utilizes a more practical, broader conception of "legislative" type activity prevalent today, they can be read to support substantive rule-making of the kind asserted by the agency:

"This measure, for the first time in this country, attempts an administrative regulation of commerce itself. We have regulated the instrumentalities such as transportation and finance, but here we attempt to rule and help commerce. An executive alone with power of enforcement merely, or even a wise discretion, could not do it. The courts under their ruling could not wisely and liberally accomplish the needed results. The legislative branch can only prescribe rules for the future. It requires a combination of all those powers in one organization, with the highest obtainable talent well and thoroughly to work out the difficult problems which will be met. Because it is in a sense permanent and without partisanship, and can lay down a policy which can be pursued or changed as may be wise and necessary, without the charge of personal or political advantage, must this important commission perform such work."

51 CONG. REC. (Part 15) at 14939. (Emphasis added.)

Thus the history of the pertinent 1914 debates leaves us with a few affirmative indications that Section 6(g) encompassed substantive rule-making and a few cryptic indications that this is not so. As a consequence, the need to rely on the section's language is obvious.

Notes

1. H.R. 12120, S. 4160, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. (1914). See 51 CONG. REC. (Part 3) 2142-2144 (1914).
2. H.R. 15613, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. (1914), reported out at 51 CONG. REC. (Part 9) 8840 (1914).
3. H.R. Rep. No. 533, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1914).
4. See also H.R. Rep. No. 533, supra note 3, at 3-4.
5. Id., Part 2, at 1.
6. Id. at 2.
7. Congressman Morgan of Okla. proposed to amend the Covington bill to give the commission power to declare rules to prevent corporations subject to the commission's jurisdiction "from engaging in any practice or from using any method or system, or from pursuing any policy or from resorting to any device, scheme, or contrivance that constitutes unfair competition or unjust discrimination as between competitors, individuals, or communities." 51 CONG. REC. (Part 9) at 9047. This amendment was quickly rejected. Id. at 9050. A similar proposal was made by Cong. Dillon of S. Dak., id. at 9056, but his plan would have specifically granted the commission adjudicatory power too. Ibid. It was rejected. Id. at 9057. This proposal, in turn, was similar to one made by Cong. Lafferty of Ore. in a report dissenting from the Commerce Committee's recommendation of the Covington bill. Lafferty's plan would have granted the commission adjudicatory and substantive rule-making authority to prevent "unfair or oppressive competition or unfair trade practices," and authority once a violation had been found, not only to issue a restraining order, but also, in the event of a finding of "substantial monopoly" and "exhorbitant prices," a limited price-fixing remedial power, as well as power to eliminate "substantial monopoly" by an "order * * * specifying such changes in the organization, conduct, or management of its property * * * as * * * will most effectively and promptly terminate such monopolistic power, while at the same time safeguarding property rights and business efficiency." H.R. Rep. No. 533, supra note 3, Part 3, 19-26. The final amendment to add significant powers to the Covington bill's commission was made, again, by Cong. Morgan. It provided for adjudicatory and price-fixing powers, 51 CONG. REC. (Part 9) at 9066, and was quickly rejected, id. at 9067.
8. Wilson's change of mind is discussed in A. LINK, WILSON: THE NEW FREEDOM 434-438 (paper ed. 1965); R. CUSHMAN, THE INDEPENDENT REGULATORY COMMISSIONS 186-187 (1941); G. HENDERSON, THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: A STUDY IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW AND PROCEDURE 26-27 (1924).
9. See note 8 supra.
10. Act of Oct. 15, 1914, c. 323, 38 STAT. 730 et seq., as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 12-27 (1970). As finally enacted, a few weeks after the Trade Commission Act was passed, the Clayton Act gave the FTC the power to enforce its substantive provisions aimed at price discrimination, § 2, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 13, exclusive dealing and tying arrangements, § 3, 15 U.S.C. § 14, anticompetitive mergers, § 7, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 18, and interlocking directorates, § 8, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 19. The FTC's enforcement of these provisions would occur in adjudicatory proceedings reviewable in the Courts of Appeals, similar to the proceedings carried on under § 5 of the Trade Commission Act. See § 21 of the Clayton Act, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 21.
11. H.R. 15657, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. (1914).
12. See 51 CONG. REC. (Part 10) 9910-9911 (1914).
13. See sources cited in note 8 supra. The Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce report endorsing the new version of the commission bill made this point explicitly:

    "One of the most important provisions of the bill is that which declares unfair competition in commerce to be unlawful, and empowers the commission to prevent corporations from using unfair methods of competition in commerce by orders issued after hearing, restraining, and prohibiting unfair methods of competition, which orders are enforceable in the courts.

    "The committee gave careful consideration to the question as to whether it would attempt to define the many and variable unfair practices which prevail in commerce and to forbid their continuance or whether it would, by a general declaration condemning unfair practices, leave it to the commission to determine what practices were unfair. It concluded that the latter course would be the better, for the reason, as stated by one of the representatives of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, that there were too many unfair practices to define, and after writing 20 of them into the law it would be quite possible to invent others.

    "It may be stated that representatives of the National Implement and Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, and the Illinois Manufacturers' Association approved the passage of a trade commission bill and a provision regarding the inquiry into and condemnation of unfair practices in trade.

    "It is believed that the term 'unfair competition' has a legal significance which can be enforced by the commission and the courts, and that it is no more difficult to determine what is unfair competition than it is to determine what is a reasonable rate or what is an unjust discrimination. The committee was of the opinion that it would be better to put in a general provision condemning unfair competition than to attempt to define the numerous unfair practices, such as local price cutting, interlocking directorates, and holding companies intended to restrain substantial competition."

    S. Rep. No. 597, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 13 (1914). See also 51 CONG. REC. (Part 11) 11084 (1914) (statement of Senator Newlands, chairman of the Commerce Committee).

14. See A. LINK, op. cit. supra note 8, at 435-439.
15. See H.R. 15613, supra note 2, § 8. The House-passed bill is printed at H.R. Rep. No. 1142, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 10-13 (1914).
16. There may be reason to believe that this deletion of rule-making authority in the Senate bill was merely a linguistic alteration of the Covington bill. The Covington bill's rule-making power was meant to permit the commission to designate which corporations with gross receipts of less than $5 million would be required to file annual reports. 51 CONG REC. (Part 9) at 8845-8846. There was some dispute over whether this power extended to allow the commission to impose on corporations subject to its reporting requirements a uniform system of accounting and an amendment was offered by Cong. Towner of Iowa to grant the commission this power explicitly, id. at 9047, but it was quickly rejected, id. at 9049. The bill that emerged from the Senate Commerce Committee, see S. 4160, § 3(c), printed at S. Rep. No. 597, supra note 13, at 1-5, appeared to give the commission discretionary power, without terming this power rule-making authority, to require corporate reports from any firm as well as the power to require a uniform system of annual reports, which might be viewed as tantamount to a uniform accounting requirement. And this provision was unchanged in the bill that passed the Senate. See H.R. Rep. No. 1142, supra note 15, at 15. Thus it would seem that the discretion given the commission in the House bill in the exercise of its power to compel corporate reporting remained in the Senate bill, but was simply phrased differently and no longer termed the power to "make rules and regulations and classifications of corporations."
17. The Senate did accept an important substitute proposed by Senator Cummins, 51 CONG. REC. (Part 13) at 13109, for the version of § 5 reported out of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce. This substitute, printed at 51 CONG. REC. (Part 13) at 13045, gave defendants found liable in commission proceedings the explicit right to bring suit in the District Courts for review of the commission's orders. No such provision was contained in the bill reported by the Senate Committee. See S. 4160, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., § 5 (1914), printed in S. Rep. No. 597, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 3-4 (1914). Moreover, the Cummins substitute also made clear that the District Courts would apply the same standard of review to commission orders as were applied to orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission, at least in cases of review sought by defendants before the agency. The bill reported from the Commerce Committee did not make clear what standard of review the courts would apply to the commission's orders. It merely stated: "Whenever the commission, after the issuance of such order, shall find that such corporation has not complied therewith, the commission may petition the district court of the United States, within any district where the method in question was used or where such corporation is located or carries on business, praying the court to issue an injunction to enforce such order of the commission; and the court is hereby authorized to issue such injunction." See S. Rep. No. 597, supra, at 4. Because this provision suggested no actual standard of review, it was criticized by Senator Cummins on the ground that it might be construed so as to preclude any review of the commission's actions and to require the courts to issue rubber-stamp injunctions. As such, it was felt, the bill might be held unconstitutional for want of due process. See 51 CONG. REC. (Part 13) at 13007; id. at 13049-13050. See also id. at 13053 (statement of Senator Walsh). Cummins' substitute also made a slight linguistic change in the first few sentences of § 5, sentences enunciating the commission's enforcement power. The Committee's bill said:

    "Sec. 5. That unfair competition in commerce is hereby declared unlawful.

    "The commission is hereby empowered and directed to prevent corporations from using unfair methods of competition in commerce."

    S. Rep. No. 597, supra note 13, at 3. The remainder of the section detailed the procedures by which the commission would act to prevent unfair competition and provided for judicial enforcement, as discussed above. In addition to altering the judicial review procedures, the first two sentences in his substitute revised the Committee's version slightly to read:

    "Sec. 5. That unfair competition in commerce is hereby declared unlawful.

    "The commission shall have authority to prevent such unfair competition in commerce in the manner following, to wit: * * *"

    51 CONG. REC. (Part 13) at 13045. (Emphasis added.) It is tempting, of course, to conclude that the addition of the italicized language in the substitute demonstrates a senatorial purpose to make clear, by the use of arguably limiting language, that only through adjudication would the standard of illegality be clarified to cover specific business practices. But this language was not discussed on the floor and it really adds nothing to our pre-existent view of the Senate deliberations on the bill that emerged from the Commerce Committee, since no provision granting rule-making power was inserted to start with. Of course, had this language stayed in the legislation as it was ultimately passed by both Houses and signed by the President, we would have to deal with its implications. But it was removed in the conference committee, again without any discussion.

18. As do those commentators who have concluded that the Act's legislative history does not support an assertion of legislative type rule-making power. See Weston, Deceptive Advertising and the Federal Trade Commission: Decline of Caveat Emptor, 24 FED. B. J. 548, 570 (1964); Shapiro, The Choice of Rulemaking or Adjudication in the Development of Administrative Policy, 78 HARV. L. REV. 921, 960 (1965); Burrus & Teter, Antitrust: Rulemaking v. Adjudication in the FTC, 54 GEO. L.J. 1106, 1125 (1966); Robinson, The Making of Administrative Policy: Another Look at Rulemaking and Adjudication and Administrative Procedure Reform, 118 U. PA. L. REV. 485, 490 (1970). One commentator who endorses the FTC's claim finds the legislative history considerably more ambiguous. See Wegman, Cigarettes and Health: A Legal Analysis, 51 CORN. L. Q. 678, 742-746 (1966). See also Note, FTC Substantive Rulemaking: An Evaluation of Past Practice and Proposed Legislation, 48 N.Y.U.L. REV. 135, 139-142 (1973).
19. Mr. STEVENS of Minnesota. * * *

    The Supreme Court has held that the Interstate Commerce Commission does exercise the right of determining whether a rate in existence is unreasonable or unjust. That is a quasi-judicial act and the decision of the commission on that point is reviewable by the courts, because it is a review of a legal decision upon a given state of facts. But when the commission goes further and decides what must be a reasonable rate or practice for the future, of course that is a legislative act which must not and can not be reviewed by the courts any more than could an act of Congress be so reviewed. There is that distinction, and we have carried that distinction into this bill. Whenever the trade commission decides that a certain act is an act of unfair method of competition, the decision on that point as a question of law is, and ought to be, reviewable by the courts. The facts themselves are found by the commission. Its finding as to the facts is conclusive. Its opinion as to whether that state of facts constitutes an act violating the law is its judgment of law upon the facts and its judgment is and ought to be reviewed, and it is so provided by this bill.

    * * *

    Mr. SHERLEY. If the gentleman will permit, the Federal trade commission differs from the Interstate Commerce Commission in that it has no affirmative power to say what shall be done in the future?

    Mr. STEVENS of Minnesota. Certainly.

    Mr. SHERLEY. In other words, it exercises in no sense a legislative function such as is exercised by the Interstate Commerce Commission?

    Mr. STEVENS of Minnesota. Yes. The gentleman is entirely right. We desired clearly to exclude that authority from the power of the commission. We did not know as we could grant it anyway. But the time has not arrived to consider or discuss such a question.

    51 CONG. REC. (Part 15) 14938 (1914).