Page:CRS Report 98-611.djvu/3

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CRS-3

successful in overturning or modifying executive orders based solely upon or authorized by a statute, which, of course, was the creation of the legislature.

Exercising its power of the purse, Congress has provided that appropriated funds may not be made available to pay the expenses of any executive agency, including agencies established by executive order, after such agency has been in existence for one year, unless Congress appropriates money specifically for it or authorizes the expenditure of funds by it.[1] In some situations, where Congress has delegated authority to the President, it has legislated requirements that executive orders exercising this authority be subject to either congressional review and possible cancellation before becoming effective, or modification, including cancellation, after being issued.[2]

Finally, Congress has legislated procedures concerning the issuance of presidential proclamations and executive orders. With the Federal Register Act of 1935, Congress mandated the publication of the Federal Register, an executive branch gazette that is produced each working day by the National Archives and Records Administration. That statute also requires the Federal Register publication of all “Presidential proclamations and Executive orders, except those not having general applicability and legal effect or effective only against Federal agencies or persons in their capacity as officers, agents, or employees thereof.” In effect, the vast majority of presidential proclamations and executive orders must be published, particularly those prescribing a penalty. The statute also indicates that (1) “documents or classes of documents that the President may determine from time to time have general applicability and legal effect” and (2) “documents or classes of documents that may be required so to be published by Act of Congress” shall also be reproduced in the Federal Register.[3] In fact, Presidents have elected to publish some other kinds of directives, which are discussed below. All such presidential instruments published in the Federal Register are collected in annual volumes of Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations for ready reference.

Administrative Orders

The first administrative order, so denominated, was issued May 25, 1940. It established the Office for Emergency Management in the Executive Office of the President.[4] The directive appeared to be issued pursuant to and as an extension of an executive order (E.O. 8248) of September 8, 1939, which organized the Executive Office of the President and made generic reference to an office for emergency management which might be subsequently established in the event of a national emergency or the threat of a national emergency. The second administrative order,

  1. See 58 Stat. 361, at 387; 31 U.S.C. 3147.
  2. See 47 Stat. 382, at 413; 48 Stat. 8, at 16; 90 Stat. 1255; 50 U.S.C. 1621-1622; also see U.S. Congress, House Committee on Government Operations, Security Classification Policy and Executive Order 12356, 97th Cong., 2nd sess., H.Rept. 97-731 (Washington: GPO, 1982), p. 35.
  3. See 44 U.S.C. 1505.
  4. See 3 C.F.R., 1938-1943 Comp., p. 1320.