Interstate Commerce Commission - Expansion of ICC Authority

Expansion of ICC Authority

The situation of the ICC began to change after the turn of the century as the United States Congress expanded the ICC's powers through subsequent legislation. The 1893 Railroad Safety Appliance Act gave the ICC jurisdiction over railroad safety, removing this authority from the states, and this was followed with amendments in 1903 and 1910. The Elkins Act (1903) increased penalties for rate discrimination and made those who sought rebates as guilty as the railroads that granted them. The Hepburn Act (1906) authorized the ICC to set maximum railroad rates, and extended the agency's authority to cover bridges, terminals, ferries, sleeping cars, express companies and oil pipelines. The act also declared that any order of the ICC had the force of a court order, It also introduced new accounting methods and raised the number of commissioners to seven.

A long-standing controversy was how to interpret language in the Act that banned long haul-short haul fare discrimination. The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 addressed this question by giving the ICC power to suspend rate increases pending hearings and laid on the railroads the burden of proof that the rate — not the just the increase — was just and reasonable. The Act also set up a court to hear only ICC cases and the gave the ICC authority to begin judicial proceedings against railroads without the need for the Attorney General to initiate the action. It also expanded the ICC's jurisdiction to include regulation of telephone, telegraph and wireless companies (that authority was transferred to the Federal Communications Commission in 1934)

The ICC soon grew to have authority over almost every aspect of railroading, ranging from locomotive boilers and passenger accounting to the diameter of grab irons and speed limits. The railroads reached their peak in extent and influence by 1915, about the time the ICC was hitting its stride. Ironically, just as railroads began to suffer from highway and waterway competition, the ICC set out to protect the public from the railroads.