LIMITATIONS ON CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION

Increasingly, federal laws embodying far-reaching national policies are being couched in broad and general terms. The effect of this type of legislation is to place wide discretionary powers in administrative officials and to throw upon the courts an immense burden of interpretation in applying general principles to specific factual situations. There have been sensational instances of hasty passage of corrective legislation made necessary by court decisions interpreting a poorly worded law in a way Congress did not intend, such as the portal-to-portal and overtime-on-overtime decisions. Meanwhile, the practicing lawyer is at a loss to advise his clients of the effect of such legislation upon their lives and businesses until the attitude of the administrative officials and the courts becomes known.

Even then, there is no assurance that such attitudes will remain fixed.