Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946

The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (also known as the Congressional Reorganization Act, ch. 753, 60 Stat. 812, enacted August 2, 1946) was the most comprehensive reorganization of the United States Congress in history to that date.

The need to modernize the national legislature became evident during the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II. During those years of economic crisis and global war, the federal government took on vast new responsibilities—responsibilities that stretched to the breaking point of the capacity of the national legislature, as it was then structured, to cope with a vastly increased workload. At the same time the power and prestige of Congress were rapidly eroding. During the depression and even more so during the war Congress delegated to the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt sweeping authority to implement legislation as he and his agents in the executive branch saw fit. In addition, the war caused Congress a severe loss of prestige. Suddenly, it seemed legislators became the object for all the pent up frustrations and anxieties of war. Some influential commentators charged that Congress's antiquated traditions, cumbersome procedures, and long delays in considering legislation rendered it incapable of meeting the needs of the modern world. The future, they said, rested with the president.

By the end of the war, many legislators had concluded that the only way to recapture their lost stature was to reform the Congress. A key leader of the reform movement was the veteran Wisconsin senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr., scion of Wisconsin's famous political dynasty. In 1945, he and Oklahoma representative A. S. "Mike" Monroney co-chaired a joint committee of Congress to consider what might be done to make the body more efficient and effective. The following year, the committee recommended sweeping reforms, and the committee's co-chairs incorporated many of those reforms into a reorganization measure.

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