We all know the federal government, the U.S. Federal Government has three branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. Administrative agencies are in the executive branch of government. That means their role is to execute the laws that Congress has passed. We see two distinct types of regulatory agencies. Some are firmly within the executive branch. Within the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which issues regulations that we're all very familiar with relating to pharmaceuticals and also food that we eat. There also are some agencies that are stand-alone, within the executive branch. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency, which is um a major regulatory agency. There is another category of agencies known as the independent regulatory commissions. And that would include the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the Consumer Product Safety Commission. And those actually pose some challenges to administrative lawyers. What branch of government are they in? They actually have some responsibility um for issuing the regulations, um executing the laws that Congress passes, but they also have somewhat of a um judiciary function. They'll have administrative law judges. Those agencies are are considered independent of the executive branch, and yet if you're within the constitutional structure of the three branches, they are part of the executive branch.