Agencies continually interpret the statutes they administer.
This recommendation addresses the relationship between the procedures used by an agency in interpreting a statute and the role of the courts in statutory interpretation. However, for many years courts have accorded respectful attention or even controlling effect to interpretations of statutes made by the agencies that administer them. In some situations, in which the courts reserve the power to arrive independently at their own interpretations, they will give respectful consideration to an agency's construction but may reject it, even if it seems reasonable. In other cases, courts consider themselves bound to accept an agency's interpretation outright, provided only that it is consistent with the statute and is reasonable. In that case, one involving legislative rulemaking, the Supreme Court laid out a general framework for reviewing agency interpretations of statutes.