Administrative Procedure

The CHAIRMAN. I have been saying for a good while you are either going to have to do that or you are going to have to go ahead and establish these great organizations of considerable size around Members of Congress and wind up with 500 or 600 other bureaus, and the Congressman will be in the center of it and he won't know much about what the folks are doing under it.

Mr. SIMMONS. I agree with you and will be glad at some time to discuss that with you over a national radio chain.

STATEMENT OF C. A. MILLER, WASHINGTON, D. C., CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON ADMINISTRATIVE LAW FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Mr. MILLER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, as Mr. McFarland said, I am going to take up where the president of the American Bar Association left off.

The CHAIRMAN. I believe it would be a good idea for you to identify yourself, first.

Mr. MILLER. My name is C. A. Miller; my office is 1120 Tower Building, Washington, D. C. By way of identification and some qualification, perhaps I should say at the present time I am vice president and general counsel of the American Short Line Railroad Association. I mean by that that is the source from which I obtain my compensation.

I am here as the chairman of the American Bar Association committee on administrative law for the District of Columbia.

I have been, as the president of the American Bar Association said, a past president or am a past president of the Association of Interstate Commerce Commission Practitioners. I was a member of the committee that cooperated with the Interstate Commerce Commission's committee in revising the general rules of practice of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1941 and 1942; I was also a member of the committee that revised the rules of practice of the Public Utilities Commission of the District of Columbia which were adopted in 1942. So far as my experience is concerned, I should say, in the field of administrative law, it began about 25 years ago when I became a member of Mr. Beaman's staff in the office of what now is the Legislative Counsel Service. Mr. Beaman and Mr. Law, with whom most of you gentlemen are acquainted, were my original preceptors and instructors in the field of administrative law. Since that time, however, my experience has been mostly as a practitioner before the administrative agencies of the Government specializing in particular before the Interstate Commerce Commission.

In making this statement, I think I should say to you gentlemen I appear here solely as the representative of the American Bar Association, although our own Short Line Association has endorsed and is in favor of an administrative law bill.

Your committee has before it, Mr. Chairman, six bills; namely, H. R. 184, the so-called Celler bill; H. R. 339 and H. R. 1117, identical bills, which we style the Smith-Cravens bill; H. R. 1203, the Sumners bill, which is generally known throughhout the country as the McCarran-Sumners bill; H. R. 1206, the Walter bill, and H. R.

I assume, Mr. Chairman, it is the purpose and intent of the chairman to have these bills made a part of the record of this hearing?

The CHAIRMAN, I do not know as to whether we will make them a part of the record or not, but I believe it would be helpful if you would discuss the general subject matter as distinguished, at this time, from discussing the provisions of the particular bills. (The bills appear in the appendix.)

Mr. MILLER. That is what I propose to do. I may say to you, Mr. Chairman, in such preparation as we could make for this hearing, our idea was it should be as flexible as it could be made so as to meet the desires of the committee to the extent possible; at the same time to be as helpful to the committee as possible without being too lengthy in our presentation. For that reason, I have had prepared and there is before each of you gentlemen a mimeographed document captioned "Summary of salient features of administrative procedure bills pending before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, United States." In the summary statement I take up each of the bills in their numerical order and very briefly summarize what we consider to be the salient features of those bills.

A very cursory examination of that statement will indicate to you gentlemen that, by and large, the bills cover the same general territory. There are differences in the details of them and in the approach, but I believe no good purpose would be served by my going into any elaborate description of the salient features of these various bills at this time.

The CHAIRMAN. I think you are right.

Mr. MILLER. I think the document presented to you will serve the purpose of shortening the hearing as much as possible. The chairman can, of course, have that statement incorporated in the record. if he wishes; or, if not, as may suit the convenience of the committee. The CHAIRMAN. We will be very glad to incorporate that in the record, Mr. Miller.

(The matter above referred to is as follows:)

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF SALIENT FEATURES OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE BILLS PENDING BEFORE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES, JUNE 21, 1945

(H. R. 184, Celler bill; H. R. 339 and H. R. 1117, Smith-Cravens bills; H. R. 1203, Sumners bill; H. R. 1206, Walter bill; H. R. 2602, Gwynne bill) H. R. 184-CELLER BILL

I. DECLARATION OF GENERAL POLICY

1. All administrative authority should be effected by established procedures designed to assure adequate protection of private interests and to effectuate declared policies of Congress.

2. All procedures should be made known to all interested persons.

3. Adjudication should include due notice, opportunity to be heard, and prompt decision.

II. DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY

Provision is made for delegation of authority to subordinates.

III. OFFICE OF FEDERAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE

1. Director of Federal Administrative Procedure, to be appointed by President,