Statutory authority

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Statutory authority refers to the powers and duties assigned to a government official or agency through a law passed by Congress or a state legislature. It is also known as a statutory grant of authority. At the federal level, Congress creates and authorizes agencies to administer government programs and enforce the law. Through statutory grants of authority from Congress, departments and agencies of the federal government obtain the authority to issue legally binding rules and resolve disputes through adjudication.[1][2]

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Background

See also: Enabling statute and organic statute

Statutory grants of authority enacted by Congress authorize or require federal agencies to issue legally binding rules and administer government programs. These statutes often include general directives on a particular area of policy, allowing the relevant agency to determine the substantive and procedural details of how a statute or program is administered. Some statutes require that an agency issue regulations on a particular subject, while others leave enforcement decisions to the agency in question. Laws known as organic statutes create and authorize government entities, while enabling statutes confer new powers or permit something that was previously prohibited or not expressly authorized.[1][2]

When an agency rule is published in the Code of Federal Regulations, a reference to the statutory authority under which the agency issued the rule is typically included. These authority notes list specific sections of the relevant law and may provide multiple citations from different sources to the same law.[1] The Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules (PTOA) lists the statutory grants of authority under which regulations codified in the Code of Federal Regulations were issued.[3]

See also

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