During the Great Depression, Congress granted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) presidential reorganization authority in some respects more powerful than what the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025 contemplates (as of this writing) for Trump 2. Specifically, for a two-year period starting with FDR's initial, Mar. 4, 1933 inauguration, any reorganizations FDR might have made (and he did make some) weren't subject to Congressional review. (Technically, the two-year period started with the enactment, the day before FDR's initial inauguration, of amendments to the Economy Act of 1932. Enactment of those amendments sunsetted the powers on Mar. 3, 1935.)

On similar, yet also very different, footing as to what the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025 presently envisions, FDR had the power to abolish independent regulatory agencies and some/all of their statutory programs, per 47 Stat. 1517 (see the "WINDING UP AFFAIRS OF AGENCIES" portion that modified Sec. 406 of the underlying Economy Act of 1932). Except whereas Trump would have to propose reorganization plans to Congress (currently Republican controlled, of course), Roosevelt's reorganization executive orders were exempt from Congressional review altogether during the two-year period, another respect in which they were much stronger than what the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025 envisions. (Whether subject to Congressional review or not, executive-led reorganizations prior to the Reorganization Act of 1939 were conducted by executive orders rather than by reorganization plans.)

However, unlike what the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025 currently contemplates, FDR was never empowered to abolish departments or all of their statutory programs. See this language in the March 3, 1993 amendments: "except that the President shall not have authority under this title to abolish or transfer an executive department and/or all the functions thereof." In this respect, what the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025 envisions is completely unprecedented, even relative to President Roosevelt. (For reference, there was another set of amendments of Mar. 20, 1993, but they do not concern us here.)

What about, to doublecheck, President Herbert Hoover prior to FDR--could Hoover abolish departments or all of their statutory programs? No, he couldn't, nor for independent regulatory agencies, per the Economy Act of 1932. As the 2012 Congressional Research Service report by Hogue explains (PDF page nine; document page six): "an executive order under this authority could not abolish an entire federal organization or eliminate all of its functions."

It's worth noting, per the Hogue report, that during the two-year period of immense presidential reorganization authority, FDR did issue a "number of executive orders making various individual regroupings, consolidations, transfers, and abolitions of executive agencies and functions." Yet as Hogue writes, despite "the availability of expansive reorganization powers, Roosevelt did not undertake a comprehensive rearrangement of the executive branch." Hogue's 34th footnote provides: "Historian Richard A. Polenberg has suggested several reasons for the lack of comprehensive reorganization. First, upon entering office, Roosevelt faced the press of economic issues, which took precedence. In addition, small agencies, though adding to the complexity of the federal bureaucracy, arguably could respond more swiftly to the nation's problems. Furthermore, Roosevelt benefitted from the competing organizations and appointees in his administration. Finally, the President was aware of political impediments to closing offices and making other related changes."

Per the Hogue report, President Roosevelt made clear in 1937 that his reorganization priority wasn't huge abolishment: "Large savings in the cost of government can be made only by cutting down or eliminating government functions. And to those who advocate such a course it is fair to put the question--which functions of government do you advocate cutting off?"

In other words, during the two-year period of immense presidential reorganization authority, for whatever reasons--per Polenberg via Hogue, the mix included pragmatic and political reasons--FDR was fairly restrained in his use of it relative to the enormous, but not absolute, power the period afforded. The reorganization power given right before FDR's first inauguration was formally limited in duration, and there were also other systemic constraints on him in myraid other ways, as my article proper discusses.

Created by Douglas Lucas in mid-May 2025 as a footnote for his [add date here] article at [add news outlet name here], "[add article title here and link]".