Legislative Controls

Each branch of government within the United States has different obligations that are set forth in the United States Constitution in order to achieve a separation of powers, ensuring a balanced government. The legislative branch of government creates all the laws that govern day to day life but also they create agency laws. Agency laws direct different government agencies in accomplishing their goals set out by overarching laws written also by the legislative branch. While that may sound overly complex and confusing at first it actually goes to ensure that rampant abuse does not happen within the United States government. Abuse can happen by the government but also within the government, this is the utmost importance of agency laws written by the legislative branch as it makes sure agencies do not step outside their mandate.

Each government agency has a different mandate that they operate under. Usually this can now be found on an agencies website under their respective mission statement. The mission statement reflects an overarching law that the agency must enforce. For example the Department of Homeland Defense is responsible for securing the borders. That was a law written by the legislative branch. The next step in many overarching laws, or followed after their passage in some cases, is to make sure the agency operates within the bounds of the constitution. This is done via the creation of different agency laws ensuring that the agency does not infringe upon the Constitutional rights of an American citizen while trying to accomplish their mission statement. In practice this runs much more smoothly than on paper, just like many legislative bills run 1,000s of pages long the implementation can be very straightforward and many agency laws can border on common sense at times. However, for legal reasons everything an agency does must be regulated and mandated through the legislature in order for transparency to occur. Transparency reflects the level of insight the average citizen can have with regards to their government’s structure and practice. The United States is one of the most transparent countries in the world, any law written can be found in the Library of Congress. Thanks to the internet the perceived transparency has also been increased. Legislative controls are exercised most frequently with regards to domestic policy. A government agency, without a set of agency laws to guide them, could very easily trample over the Constitution even without knowing it. This is why the legislature makes an effort to document all forms of laws and process in the formation of a law. That was if an average citizen has a grievance with the government, or with an agency, they can go about finding all the relative information to address the grievance.

Legislative controls are used to balance the governments overall power between the three branches of government. Legislative control can be used directly on individual agencies through forms of oversight or on the executive branch if the president has overstepped his Constitutional boundaries. These controls provide for an effect way to balance power protecting the interests of the American public.