# Delegation of Authority > [!note] Stub > This is a short entry that hasn't been fully written yet. The instrument by which a power that Congress vested in one official is exercised by someone else inside the same department. Since the reorganization plans of the 1950s, Congress has generally vested a department's powers in the department head rather than in its component offices, on the understanding that the head would hand them back down. The handing down is the delegation. Two provisions of general law do most of the work. 5 U.S.C. § 301, the housekeeping statute, lets the head of an executive department prescribe regulations for the government of the department and for the distribution and performance of its business. 5 U.S.C. § 302(b) lets the head delegate final action on matters of the employment, direction and general administration of personnel. Neither requires notice, a comment period, or publication. For powers vested in the President rather than in a department, 3 U.S.C. § 301 performs the same function, allowing a designated officer to act without the President's further approval or ratification. The practical consequence is that a reader cannot tell from a statute who actually decides a thing. The statute names an officer; a delegation, often unpublished, names whoever is doing it this year. [[How an Agency Reorganizes Itself Without Congress]] maps what that gap makes possible. ## See also - [[How an Agency Reorganizes Itself Without Congress]] · [[Reorganization Authority]] · [[Administrative State]] - [[Federal Vacancies Reform Act]] · [[Executive Branch Org Chart]] · [[Separation of Powers]]