The rapid growth of federal agencies and programs during the New Deal era was accompanied by the increasing use of regulations.
Regulations allow agencies to set wide-ranging policies.
They are not limited to individual cases, as are adjudications, which in earlier years had been the primary vehicle for agency decisions. The soon exploding use of regulations led to a concern in Congress and in the Executive Branch about a lack of uniformity among the agencies in formulating policies. An Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Proceedings was created in 1939 and issued a report and recommendations to Congress in 1941. The Attorney General's Manual took the definition one step further to contrast rulemaking from adjudication. The definition are important because agencies face different procedural requirements under APA, depending on how an agency action is classified.