Terminating the oldest living regulator: The death of the interstate commerce commission

International Journal of Public Administration

Volumn 20, Issue 12, 1997, Pages 2067-2096

  Best, Samuel ^a   Teske, Paul ^b   Mintrom, Michael ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME   (United States)

^b STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84933481617     PISSN: 01900692     EISSN: 15324265     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01900699708525287     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Schwarts, Bernard. 1973. The Economic Regulation of Business and Industry: A Legislative History of U.S. Regulatory Agencies, Vol. IV, New York: Chelsea House. Spoken by Representative James J. Wadsworth (Democrat, New York), 1938. The comment was made in a debate over the Civil Aeronautics Act, and whether a new agency or the ICC should be empowered to regulate the airlines
2. Daniels, Mark. 1994. “ Terminations and Bureaucracy: Ending Government Programs, Policies, and Organizations ”. In Handbook of Bureaucracy, Edited by: Farazmand, Ali. 449–465. New York: Marcel Dekker.
3. Kaufman, Herbert. 1976. Are Government Organizations Immortal?, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
4. Bardach, Eugene. 1976. Policy Termination as a Political Process. Policy Sciences, 7: 123–131.
5. Daniels, Mark. 1994. “ Terminations and Bureaucracy: Ending Government Programs, Policies, and Organizations ”. In Handbook of Bureaucracy, Edited by: Farazmand, Ali. 449–465. New York: Marcel Dekker. deleon, Peter. “Policy Evaluation and Program Termination.” Policy Studies Review 2 (1983): 63 1-647
6. Frantz, Janet. 1992. Reviving and Revising a Termination Model. Policy Sciences, 25: 185–189.
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8. deLeon, Peter. 1978. Public Policy Termination: An End and a Beginning. Policy Analysis, 4: 369–392.
9. Behn, Robert. 1977. How to Terminate a Public Policy: A Dozen Hints for the Would-Be Terminator. Policy Analysis, 3: 393–413.
10. 1886. Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Railway Co. v. Illinois, 3 118 U.S. 157
11. Vietor, Richard. 1989. Strategic Management in the Regulatory Environment, 213Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
12. Robin, Dorthy. 1987. Braking the Special Interests, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Felton, John and Anderson, Dale. Regulation and Deregulation of the Motor Carrier Industry, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1987
13. These rate bureaus were later specifically exempted from antitrust action by Congress in the 1948 Reed-Bulwinkle Act.
14. Perl, Daniel. 1994. The ICC Keeps on Truckin. Wall Street Journal, April: A1
15. Rothenberg, Lawrence. 1994. Politics, Regulation, and Organizations, 63Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
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17. U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1958. Interstate Trucking of Frozen Fruits and Vegetables Under Agricultural Exemptions Washington, DC Marketing Research Report No. 224, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Interstate Trucking of Fresh and Frozen Poultry Under Agricultural Exemptions, Marketing Research Report No.316, Washington, D.C., (1959); Breen, D.A. “The Monopoly Value of Household-Goods Carrier Operating Certificates.” Journal of Law and Economics 20 (1977): 153-86; and Allen, W. Bruce. An Examination of the Unregulated Trucking Experience in New Jersey, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C.(1978)
18. 1990. U. S. Industrial Outlook,: 42–14.
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20. Burgess, Lisa. 1994. Both Sides in ICC Debate Cite Rail Role in Arguments. Journal of Commerce, July
21. 1994. U.S.Industrial Outlook, July: 40–46.
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25. Phillip, Karen B., 1992. Commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission, before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation,. March241992.
26. The Reagan administration proposed eliminating the ICC numerous times in the mid-eighties, but they did not expend much political capital in the process, as they had little chance to succeed in the face of a hostile Congress and union opposition.
27. The Grace Commission identified billions of dollars in potential savings and budget reductions, including the elimination of other agencies, such as the Department of Energy and the Department of Education.
28. At this time, the president played a relatively inconsequential role in the debate over the termination of the ICC. While President Clinton explicitly called for the elimination of the ICC in his January 1995 State of the Union Address, packaging it as part of reinventing and restructuring government, it was already part of the legislative agenda.
29. This was surprising considering the precipitous decline of the ICC in the last two decades. Between the 1970s and 1994, the staff alone shrunk to roughly one-fifth of its peak size. In 1995, the ICC spent $17 million for truck tariff filing, $13 million for other trucking issues, and $23 million for regulation of other transportation modes, mostly railroads. To cover part of this, the ICC collected about $8 million in fees each year, largely for trucking filings. In 1994, the ICC had a total of 656 cases pending before it. Undercharge issues accounted for 33 of these, many of which were close to a conclusion, while railroad cases accounted for 239. In sum, the ICC was a tiny fish in an ocean of budget-cutting possibilities.
30. Johnson, Gregory. 1994. It's a Crime: Despite Flaws, ICC Honors 60-Year-Old Law. Journal of Commerce, June: 3B
31. Burgess, Lisa. 1994. Teamsters Pan ICC Report; Shippers Like Decontrol. Journal of Commerce, November: 3B
32. 1995. Report on the Functions of Interstate Commerce Commission, February: 3–4.
33. Teske, Paul, Best, Samuel, and Mintrom, Michael. 1995. Deregulating Freight Transportation: Delivering the Goods, Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute. In a somewhat related policy in 1994, Congress preempted state trucking regulation over intrastate markets, which in many states was far more stringent than that of the ICC on the interstate level
34. Sabatier, Paul. 1991. “ Public Policy: Toward Better Theories of the Policy Process ”. In Comparative Politics, Policy, and International Relations, Edited by: Crotty, William. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. Sabatier, Paul and Jenkins-Smith, Hank (eds.). Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1993.
35. Baumgartner, Frank, and Jones, Bryan. 1993. Agendas and Instability in American Politics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
36. Sabatier, Paul. 1993. “ Policy Change over a Decade or More ”. In Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach, Edited by: Jenkins-Smith, Hank. 25Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Chapter 2
37. Murphy, Daniel. 1995. Government Agency without a Mission. Investor's Business Daily, February: 1