HD16 - Regulation of Administrative Agencies

  • Published: 1950
  • Author: Virginia Advisory Legislative Council
  • Enabling Authority: Request of Governor William M. Tuck

Executive Summary:
On July 12, 1949, Honorable Wm. M. Tuck, then Governor of Virginia, requested the Council to make a study of the regulation of administrative agencies. The pertinent portion of his communication to the Council requesting this study is as follows:

"A special committee on Administrative Law of the Virginia State Bar Association has for some years been giving study to the question of improvement in the procedure of State administrative agencies in this Commonwealth. This matter was given consideration during the 1942 and 1944 sessions of the General Assembly, and this matter was dealt with to some extent by the General Assembly by the passage of the Administrative Agencies Act, Chapter 160, Acts of 1944, which applies to fourteen semiprivate licensing agencies.

Since the passage of the Federal Administrative Procedure Act by Congress, which became law on June 11, 1946, which applies to all the more important Federal Administrative agencies, the subject has received increased attention by Committees of the American Bar Association and of State Bar Associations.

At the annual meeting of the Virginia State Bar Association in Roanoke in 1947 the Association adopted resolutions as recommended by its special committee on Administrative Law, recommending to the General Assembly the enactment of suitable legislation which would extend, in principle, to all administrative agencies of the Commonwealth (except the State Corporation Commission), having rule-making power or the power to issue, withhold, suspend or revoke licenses to engage in any trade, profession or business, or to enter orders or rulings affecting private property rights or business practices, the same regulatory requirements to procedure, hearing, and judicial review contained in Chapter 160, Acts of 1944, with respect to the agencies therein specifically referred to. No action was taken on the above resolution, probably because of the unusual congestion of legislation on the calendar of the 1948 General Assembly."