Congress silently underfunded laws it had itself written strongly.

Evidence

There were plenty of congressional overseers concerned with potential agency overreaching. For instance, as a result of internal compromise, the EPA’s budget was initially within the jurisdiction of the House subcommittee chaired by Representative Jamie Whitten, an outspoken critic of many environmental laws. Whitten accordingly used the appropriations process to conduct lengthy inquiries into the details of the agency’s implementation of those laws. He quite openly opined that Congress may not actually have intended full implementation of the environmental laws it had passed: “Sometimes a fellow might feel that if he writes a law three times as strong as he wants it to be, maybe it will be carried out 100 percent.” Whitten also described his ability to “limit use of money” in order to cut back on environmental laws. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 414

Categorization

• CANDY: Whitten’s candid quote about writing laws ‘three times as strong’ is a memorable, self-contained anecdote.
• XREF: Illustrates the authorization-vs-appropriation split between congressional committees relevant to how institutions produce or frustrate law. — connects to: The EPA was structurally caught between irreconcilable demands from both directions. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 411; Legislatures can quietly bury bills rather than defeat them by open vote — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 980

Broader Connections

• Legislatures can quietly bury bills rather than defeat them by open vote #expands (0.85) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 980