Government Regulatory Agencies

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Manny Backus

A regulatory agency is a government department that has responsibility over the legislation (acts and regulations) for a given sector. Regulatory agencies exist at the federal and state level. These agencies can impact a variety of businesses, in a variety of ways - through regulations on products, antitrust rulings, compliance laws, etc. An example would be the Federal Trade Commission voiding a proposed merger of Microsoft and Yahoo! out of concerns that a combination of the two companies would have an unfair competitive advantage in the market. Another example is the Food and Drug Administration's recall of Peter Pan peanut butter that was found to contain Salmonella bacteria, hurting ConAgra's revenues and creating an opportunity for J.M. Smucker's Jif brand to claim additional market share.

Another government agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, stores information on all publicly traded companies in an online database. This database provides earnings data and annual reports on public companies to the general population.^[1]

The following is a list of selected U.S. federal regulatory agencies: ^[2]

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

Army Corps of Engineers

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)

Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC)

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Drug Enforcement Administration

Employment and Training Administration (ETA)

Employment Standards Administration (ESA)

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Farm Credit Administration (FCA)

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC)

Federal Election Commission (FEC)

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EREN)

Federal Highway Administration (FHA)

Federal Maritime Commission (FMC)

Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

1. ↑ EDGAR Company Search, www.sec.gov
2. ↑ White House List of Agencies and Commissions