SEC. 102. DEFINITIONS.-Except as otherwise expressly stated or required by the context

(a) "Agency" means each office, board, commission, independent establishment, authority, corporation, department, bureau, division, or other subdivision or unit of the executive branch of the Federal Government, and means the highest or ultimate authority therein.

(b) "Persons" means individuals or organized groups of any character, including partnerships, and other forms of agricultural, labor, business, commercial, or industrial organization or association, as well as Federal, State, or local agencies, subdivisions, municipal corporations, or officers.

(c) "Rules" means rules, regulations, standards, statements of policy, and all other types of statements issued by any agency, of general application and design to implement, interpret, or make specific the legislation administered by, and the organization and procedure of, any agency; and includes rate making, price fixing, or the fixing of standards.

(d) “Adjudication" means the final disposition by any agency of particular cases, complaints, applications, or proceedings (without distinction between licensing and other forms of proceeding) involving named persons or a named

res.

(e) "Publication," whenever required by this Act and unless otherwise provided, means publication in the Federal Register, except that agencies may adopt such other and additional means of publication as they may deem appropriate and advisable.

OF AUTHORITY WITHIN

SEC. 103. DELEGATION AND DECENTRALIZATION AGENCIES. For the expedition and sound disposition of business, agencies may delegate authority in the following respects and subject to the following conditions, except that each agency shall in every case be responsible for all acts done pursuant to such delegated authority:

(a) CERTAIN TYPES OF DUTIES.-Subject to its own supervision, direction, review, reconsideration, or initial consideration in unusually important cases, every agency is authorized to delegate to responsible members, officers, employees, committees, or administrative boards all matters of internal management and routine and the informal disposition of requests, complaints, applications, and other moving papers and matters of preliminary, initial, intermediate, or ancillary formal procedures in connection with the making of rules or adjudications.

(b) BOARDS AND SINGLE ADMINISTRATORS.-Every agency, the ultimate authority of which is vested in a board or commission, may delegate, subject to review of reconsideration by the full board or commission, any of its powers or functions to any one or more members of such board or commission, subject in each case to the further provisions of this Act; and, where the ultimate authority in any agency is vested in a single individual such individual may (subject to such review or reconsideration as may be provided by rule or law) delegate any powers, duties, or functions to subordinate officers or employees.

(c) FIELD OFFICES.-Decentralization of authority and the establishment of field offices shall be encouraged and fostered where, in the judgment of an agency, there is need therefor or the business of the agency and convenience of parties will be facilitated thereby.

d) PUBLICATION OF ALL DELEGATIONS.-Any such delegation or decentralizaTot, and attendant review procedures, shall, except as to matters of internal management and routine, be specifically provided and reflected in its published

(e) RIGHT TO APPEAR BEFORE SUPERIOR AUTHORITIES.-Whenever a superior a thority in any agency undertakes to review and revise, or to decide in the f instance, a determination made or authorized to be made by agency memders, officers, or employees, the same opportunity for ecenferences or the subLission of reviews or arguments before such superior authority shall be afforded as is afforded before such members or subordinates.

Sc 104. APPEARANCE AND REPRESENTATION OF PARTIES.-Any interested person ay appear before any agency or the representatives thereof in person or by y authorized representatives. When so appearing or represented, all reasonale facilities for negotiation, information, adjustment, or formal or informal termination of issues, questions, problems, or cases shall be afforded all such Jersons or their representatives. Every person appearing or summoned inlually in any administrative proceeding shall be freely accorded the right ble accompanied and advised by counsel.

SEC. 105. ATTORNEYS AND AGENTS.-In order to simplify the requirements for practice before agencies, the following and no other powers or requirements may be exercised or prescribed :

(a) SUSPENSION OR DEBARMENT.-Whether or not any agency maintains a roll of practitioners, it may, upon hearing and a finding of good cause therefor, preclude any person from practicing before it, subject to judicial review as to the reasonableness, in law or upon the facts, of such suspension or debarment upon any available statutory procedure or, in the absence thereof, upon application for an injunction.

(b) ADMISSIONS TO PRACTICE.-Requirements for the admission of attorneys or agents to practice, and the maintenance of formal registers of attorneys or agents, shall be omitted wherever practicable. The Office of Administrative Procedure may, subject to the conditions of this section, establish and maintain a central method for the registration or admission of attorneys and others to practice before the several agencies.

. (c) ATTORNEYS.-Where admissions to practice are deemed necessary by any agency, attorneys admitted to practice in the highest court of any State or Territory, or in any Federal court, shall, upon their written representation to that effect, be admitted to practice before such agency, except that the Patent Office may require of such attorneys such evidence of technical proficiency as may be reasonably necessary.

(d) FORMER EMPLOYEES.-Former employees of any agency may, subject to the conditions of this section, practice before such agency after the lapse of two years from the date of termination of their employment by such agency. Prior to the expiration of such period, such former employees, whether attorneys as defined in subsection (c) hereof or not, may be permitted to praitice before the agency upon such additional restrictions or conditions as may be deemed necessary by the agency.

(e) OTHER PERSONS.-Other persons may be admitted to practice before any agency upon such reasonable regulations and requirements as such agency may find necessary.

SEC. 106. INVESTIGATIONS.-All investigations shall be conducted in such a manner as to disturb and disrupt personal privacy or private occupation or enterprise in the least degree compatible with adequate law enforcement. Required reports shall be simplified so far as possible. Compulsory process or inspections shall not be issued or demanded except when in the judgment of an agency there is need therefor, nor shall persons be requested to consent to such process or inspections in excess of statutory or constitutional limits. In order to avoid the necessity for formal process, where deemed practicable agencies may informally request and receive sworn statements on matters within their jurisdiction with the same authority and effect as though requested, submitted, or received at authorized formal hearings. The investigative powers or means of any agency shall be exercised only by the authorized representatives of such agency and for its authorized purposes, and shall not be exercised for the effectuation of purposes, powers, or policies of any other person or agency unless such exercise is expressly authorized by statute.

SEC. 107. SUBPENAS.-Administrative subpenas authorized by statute shall be issued only upon request and a reasonable showing of the grounds, necessity, and reasonable scope thereof, and shall be issued to private parties as freely as to representatives of any agency.

SEC. 108. PUBLICITY.-Matters of record shall be made available to all interested persons, except personal data or material which the agency, for good cause and upon statutory authorization, finds should be treated as confidential. Agencies may make available special information upon request at cost or without charge. In all contested proceedings, agency publicity shall be withheld during preliminary or investigative phases of adjudication. When formal proceedings are instituted, publicity and releases may be issued by an agency or its officers or employees only upon equality of treatment of representatives of the press and other interested parties and shall contain only the full text or impartial summaries of documents of public record; and such summaries shall, so far as deemed practicable, cover the public documents or positions of all parties to the proceeding or matter involved.

SEC. 109. PROVISION FOR THE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE.—In order to assure the continuous and proper operation of the provisions of this Act, to make further studies and recommendations, and to perform the special functions hereinafter provided:

(a) OFFICE OF FEDERAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE.-There shall be at the sat of government an independent establishment to be known as the Office of Federal Administrative Procedure (hereinafter referred to as the Office), with a Director learned in the law or qualified by experience, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, at a salary of $10,000 per annum, and who shall, unless removed by the President for cause, hold office for the term of seven years or until a successor shall have been appointed. The Office shall be governed by a board composed of (1) the Director, (2) one of the associate justices of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia designated for that purpose by the chief justice of that court, and (3) the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. The latter two members shall serve ex officio and without further compensation.

(b) PERSONNEL FUNCTIONS AND STAFF.-The board (1) shall perform such functions respecting hearing commissioners as are provided in title III hereof; (2) may appoint, without regard for the provisions of the civil-service laws, an executive secretary and such attorneys, investigators, and experts as are deemed necessary to perform the functions and duties vested in the Office and ax their compensation according to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended; and (3) may appoint such other employees, with regard to existing laws applicable to the employment and compensation of officers and employees of the United States, as it may from time to time find necessary. During his term of office or employment, neither the Director nor any officer or employee of the Office shall engage directly or indirectly in practice before, or have private professional relationships with, any of the agencies or courts of the United States. The Office may, with the consent of any agency, utilize the personnel facilities of the agency in the performance of its duties, and may utilize zny other uncompensated services or facilities.

(c) OTHER DUTIES.-In order to carry out the policy of this Act, the Office shall (1) conduct inquiries into the practices and procedures of the several agencies to secure the just and efficient discharge of their public duties; (2) receive and respond promptly to all reasonable inquiries respecting administrative functions, procedures, or practices; (3) investigate complaints; (4) make recommendations to Congress and the agencies to secure the elimination of complaints and the adoption of just, efficient, and uniform methods of procedure; and (5) report annually on or before the 15th day of January to the President and Congress respecting the work of the Office during the year last past, the operation of this Act, and the legislative needs of the Federal administrative establishment in furtherance of the policies of this Act. The report shall also contain the names and qualifications of all hearing commissioners appointed since the last report, and the circumstances regarding any proceedings had for the removal of hearing commissioners.

(d) SPECIAL INQUIRIES.-The Office shall, from time to time, make studies and reports (1) to indicate in what respects the provisions of this Act may be amplified and extended; (2) to regularize the rules of pleading and evidence; and (3) to provide model or recommended procedures respecting investigaTins, licensing, tests and inspections, reparation cases, rate making and other serial forms of rule making, claims against the United States, loans by public agencies, the distribution of benefits and gratuities, and other special types of administrative processes.

(e) AGENCY LIAISON OFFICERS AND ADVISORY COMMITTEES.-Upon the request of be Office, each agency shall name one of its members, officers, or employees to serve as liaison officer with the Office; and each agency shall promptly finish the Office with all information and proper assistance requested. The O shall organize and name advisory committees from the public service, the bar, and the public to aid it in the performance of any of its functions. for 110. EFFECT AND ENFORCEMENT. The provisions of this Act shall serve guides, limitations, or authority for the persons affected by administrative powers, for administrators in the exercise of those powers, and for the courts In reviewing the exercise of such powers. Any member, officer, or employee of an agency who violates the mandatory provisions of this Act shall, other laws to the contrary notwithstanding, be subject to disciplinary action, demotion, suspension, or discharge from the public service; and each agency head member of the board or commission comprising the ultimate authority any agency shall take such disciplinary measures as are appropriate to the case except that an honest mistake shall not be penalized.

SEC. 111. SUSPENSION OF PARTICULAR APPLICATIONS OF CODE.-Whenever the President finds, upon the application and reasoned recommendations of any agency and of the Office of Federal Administrative Procedure, that the application of any particular mandatory section, subsection, or provision of this Act to any particular part of any function or operation of such agency is unworkable or impracticable he may, upon such terms and conditions as he may provide to assure some other form of fair procedure as nearly as may be in accordance with the policies declared by this Act, suspend the operation of such application of any of the provisions of this Act by Executive order, which shall be published before the effective date of such suspension. Thereupon the operation of this Act as to such application shall be of no force or effect until thirty days subsequent to the termination of the next succeeding session of Congress, unless meanwhile (a) the President shall by published order have rescinded his order of suspension, or (b) Congress shall have amended this Act to permit such variation or to provide some substitute procedure (in which case such variation or substituted procedure shall prevail), or (c) Congress shall, by legislative act or concurrent resolution, have reaffirmed the application of this Act (in which case the suspension order of the President shall be of no further force or effect). If Congress shall take no action during such period, the suspension order of the President shall be of no further force or effect, except that further suspension orders may be issued upon like conditions. All such suspension orders, together with the supporting reasons and recommendations of the agency affected and of the Office of Federal Administrative Procedure (which shall have been also published and made available to the public at the time of the issuance of the Presidential order of suspension), shall be transmitted to the Congress not more than ten days after the issuance of the order of suspension by the President or, if Congress is not then in session, not more than ten days after the commencement of the next session of Congress; and orders rescinding such suspension orders shall be similarly transmitted to Congress.

SEC. 112. SEPARABILITY OF PROVISIONS.-If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof, to any agency, person, public duty, procedure, or circumstances is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and the application of such provision to others shall not be affected thereby.

SEC. 113. EFFECTIVE DATE OF ACT.-This act shall take effect twenty days after its approval, except that subsections 309 (b), (c), (m) (1), (m) (2), (n), and (o) shall take effect six months thereafter unless prior thereto an agency shall complete its necessary adjustments and publish by rule its acceptance of the hearing commissioner system therein provided.

TITLE II.—ADMINISTRATIVE RULES AND REGULATIONS

SEC. 200. DECLARATION OF POLICY.-It is the declared policy of Congress that administrative agencies (a) shall issue rules, regulations, or statements of the types specified in this title in order that interested persons may have all possible information, both specific and general, as to administrative organization, policy, law, procedure, and practice; (b) shall formulate such rules, regulations, or statements through the utilization of procedures authorized by this title and designed to extend the legislative process by securing the participation of interested parties, and shall make complete, adequate, and timely amendments, additions, and revisions through the same procedures; and (c) shall, as a fixed policy, prefer and encourage rule making in order to reduce to a minimum the necessity for case-by-case administrative adiudications.

SEC. 201. EXCEPTIONS.-Whenever expressly found by an agency to be contrary to the public interest, the provisions of this title, in whole or part, shall not apply to (a) the conduct of military, naval, or national-defense functions, or the selection or procurement of men or materials for the armed forces of the United States; or (b) the conduct of diplomatic functions, foreign affairs, or activities beyond the territorial limits of the United States affecting the relation of the United States to other nations. Such findings shall be published unless, in any given case, the President shall in writing direct the withholding of such publication.

SEC. 202. REQUIRED TYPES OF RULES.-Every agency is authorized and directed to formulate, issue, and publish from time to time, so far as applicable or ap propriate in view of the legislation and subject matter with which the agency

deals, rules in the following forms or containing (but not necessarily limited to the following types of information:

(a) AGENCY ORGANIZATION.—Every agency shall promptly state in the form of rules, and keep current such statements of, its internal organization, specifying (1) its principal offices, officers, and types of personnel other than clerical or custodial, (2) its subdivisions, (3) the places of business or operation, duties, functious, and general authority or jurisdiction of each of the foregoing, and 4) the same information as to its field staff and organization.

(b) STATEMENTS OF POLICY.-Where an agency, acting under general or specific legislation, bas formulated or acts upon general policies not clearly specified in legislation, so far as practicable such policies shall be formulated, stated, pubfished, and revised in the same manner as other rules.

(c) RULES OF SUBSTANCE.-Each agency shall, as rapidly as deemed practicable, Issue all rules specifically authorized or required by statute in order to implement, complete, or make operative particular legislative provisions.

(d) INTERPRETATIVE RULES.-Each agency shall issue, in the form of rules, all necessary or appropriate rules interpreting the statutory provisions under which It operates, and such rules shall reflect the interpretations currently relied upon by such agency and not otherwise published in the form of rules.

te RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE.-All regularly available procedures, formal or informal, shall be formulated and promulgated as rules of practice and procedure. The description of such procedures shall be such as to disclose, far as practicable, the general procedural stages, steps, and alternatives for all types of jurisdiction, functions, or cases of each agency.

(f) FORMS.-Each agency may prescribe the form and content of all papers. reports, applications, certificates, requests, complaints, responses, pleadings, briefs, or other documents.

(g) INSTRUCTIONS.-Every agency, the procedures of which in whole or part involve action upon extended or detailed statements, reports, or examinations, shall make and issue adequate instructions for such reports or examinations in order that persons affected may be clearly advised of the scope and requirements thereof.

SEC. 203, FORM, CONTENT, AND PUBLICATION OF RULES.-The following directions shall be observed in connection with all rules:

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(2) REPETITION OF LEGISLATION.-Rules shall not merely repeat legislative provisions, except that, where restatement of the text of legislation is deemed advisable, legislative provisions shall be stated in italics or quotation marks and label to indicate their source.

(b) To BE COMPLETE AND CURPENT.-All rules shall be kept current at all times, and care shall be exercised to assure that rules shall be complete but not prolix or repetitious.

(C) PUBLICATION OF RULES.-No agency shall act upon unpublished rules, instructions, or statements of policy, except that staff instructions in special or individual cases or general instructions respecting matters of internal office management or routine need not be published and shall not be included in rules. All other rules shall be published in the Federal Register, and in addition aries shall publish their rules (as reprints of the Federal Register or Code of Federal Regulations, or otherwise) from time to time (with or without the station under which they operate) in pamphlet form.

(d) ORGANIZATION, FORM, AND NUMBERING.-All rules of an agency may be conamel in a single set, but shall be separately stated as to (1) agency organizavn (2) practice and procedure, and (3) substance. Rules may be otherwise anted as to form and numbering, provided that they are organized in such a tunner as, in the judgment of the agency, will best reflect the particular subjects of administration and procedure.

24. RESCISSION OF RULES.-After agency withdrawal or rescission, or Justical invalidation, of any rule, no person shall be held to incur any liability penalty for conduct in accordance with such rule until after publication of Withdrawal for not less than thirty days, except that where the agency Gas and publishes a finding of emergency such rescission may take effect upu publication or at any time thereafter specified by the agency. Rules may he modined in particular cases, either with the consent of persons affected where no rights are abridged or serious disadvantage imposed thereby, upon nably adequate notice to such persons.

S. FORMULATION OF RULES.-Each agency shall both (1) formulate * publish a regularized procedure or procedures for the making of rules, sub