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Some in congress whine about the growth of government: Then they vote to establish a new federal department or agency. When is the last time a federal agency was eliminated?
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Depends on how the question is phrased. Eliminated altogether? Admittedly not very often. Merged with another agency, sometimes after being split apart? More often than you might think.
Probably the best-known example was the merger of the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the Department of Defense in 1949.
Other examples? The Interstate Commerce Commission was split apart in 1995 and its various functions parceled out to several other transportation-related agencies. The Department of the Interior is somewhat of a conglomerate of agencies that used to be independent, and it's also taken over various superfluous tertiary functions from other agencies after mismanagement or neglect. The Office of Thrift Supervision is scheduled to disappear into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency 2 weeks from today on Oct 19th. FWIW although they regulate banking rather than prosecuting criminals, the relationship between the OTS and OCC is somewhat similar to the ATF and FBI; they're supposed to enforce different parts of the same basic group of laws, but their jurisdictions overlap in some cases.
Food for thought.
