Policy Networks and the U.S. Congressional Efforts to Terminate Four Federal Agencies

The article develops a partial explanation for the varying fates of four federal agencies that the U.S. Congress targeted for elimination in the 1980s or 1990s: the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Congress successfully eliminated the CAB, ICC, and OTA; the NEA, however, survived. The argument of the article is that a vibrant policy network surrounding an agency Congress has targeted for elimination provides resiliency to resist congressional termination efforts by weaving together the relevant institutions and organizations into a resilient policy network and generating critical political support during dire times. A model of policy network resiliency is presented and applied to congressional efforts to terminate the CAB, ICC, OTA, and NEA.