“Nor should we omit in our study [of public administration] theproblem of legislative-administrative relations, in view of theincreasing role of the public servant in the determination ofpolicy, through either the preparation of legislation or the makingof rules under which general legislative policy is given meaning andapplication” (Gaus 1931, 123).

In the title of his 1993 Gaus Award Lecture, Francis Rourke posed thedeceptively simple question, “Whose Bureaucracy Is This, Anyway?”His subtitle was “Congress, the President, and PublicAdministration.” Rourke, a pioneer in the field of bureaucraticpolitics, concluded that federal administration was constitutionallyand politically under the “joint custody” of Congress and thepresident. Clearly, Congress has formidable constitutional authorityand responsibility for the structure and operation of the executivebranch. A great deal of political science research demonstrates thatthe legislature and its committees are a major political force infederal administration. Even as the older “iron triangle” modelgives way to newer approaches, no one (other than misguidedreformers) could reasonably answer Rourke's question and excludeCongress. Its oversight, influence, and intervention in agencyoperations on behalf of policy objectives and incumbency are centralfeatures of contemporary federal administration.