Speech #980064391

Mr. President. a Supreme Court decision last week in Immigration and Naturalization Service against Chadha requires all of us to reflect very deeply on the practical manifestations of our constitutional system of checks and- balances. The Congress has sought in many ways to maintain its legislative preeminence in the past 50 years of increasing Government regulation. By broadly declaring that oneHouse vetoes of decisions by the Attorney General regarding deportations constitute an unconstitutional manner of legislating. the Court called into question an extensively utilized tool by which the Congress has sought to insure the adherence by administrative agencies to congressional Intent across a wide spectrum of subjects. The ultimate sweep of the Courts decision is not now determinable. although it clearly casts doubt on the constitutionality of all legislative vetoes. Nor does it necessarily follow that the loss of this controlling device must portend a diminished congressional role in the governance of this country to the detriment of those caught in the everwidening web of agency intrusions into private lives and the marketplace.