The Reorganization Acts

Congress first gave a President general power to reorganize agencies in the Economy Act of 1932, signed by Herbert Hoover. After the Brownlow Committee reported in 1937 that the President needs help, Congress passed the Reorganization Act of 1939, signed on April 3, 1939, which let Franklin Roosevelt submit reorganization plans that would take effect unless both houses disapproved them within 60 days. His first plan created the Executive Office of the President and moved the Bureau of the Budget into it.

Congress renewed the authority repeatedly, notably in the Reorganization Act of 1949 after the first Hoover Commission, and Presidents submitted more than 100 plans. Plans created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1953, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1970, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 1979, and reshaped many smaller agencies. Plans could not create new cabinet departments in later versions of the law, and certain agencies were placed off-limits.

The authority relied on a legislative veto, which the Supreme Court held unconstitutional in INS v. Chadha in 1983. Congress amended the act in 1984 to require a joint resolution of approval, which the President signs, but let the authority lapse at the end of that year. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump asked Congress to restore it, without success, so major restructuring now requires ordinary legislation, though Presidents still reorganize within existing law by executive order and agency action, as in the 2025 efforts to shrink and consolidate agencies, which prompted legal challenges.