Presidential Commissions

Report Outline
Origin and Growth of Federal Commissions
Features in Evelopment of Federal Commissions
Individual Commissioners En Foreign Relations
Post-War Development of Advisory Councils
Special Focus

Creation by the President or Congress of upwards of 30 federal commissions, committees, and boards during the Hoover administration has given rise to much discussion of the place of commissions in the federal government. This discussion has included considerable criticism of “government by commission” and has reflected some confusion of thought on the subject, owing to the indiscriminate use of the term “commission” to cover a variety of agencies differing in character, function, duration, composition, and powers. The use of commissions by President Hoover for various purposes is supposed to be an innovation in federal practice, although research discloses that 492 commissions and similar bodies were established during the period from the time President Roosevelt succeeded to office in 1901 to the end of President Coolidge's term in 1929—an average of more than 60 in each administration of the twentieth century.

The Hoover commissions have been defended, on the one hand, as involving a scientific approach to the solution of perplexing public problems; they have been criticized, on the other, as a convenient device for dodging issues. Public debate as to the merits of the commission method came to a head with the prohibition report of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, the different interpretations of the findings and recommendations made by the members of the commission, and the construction placed upon the report by the President in transmitting it to Congress. Questions arose whether investigating commissions should confine themselves to fact-finding or should also be free to interpret their findings and propose changes in governmental policy; and whether, in the latter event, the executive ought to adopt the recommendations of his agency or should be at liberty to dissent from its proposals of policy.

In the light of this discussion and of President Hoover's continuing reliance upon the commission method, this report will seek to analyze the nature and uses of federal advisory commissions and to appraise their significance in the American scheme of government.