Interstate Commerce Commission

The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including interstate bus lines and telephone companies. Beginning in 1906, Congress expanded the ICC's authority to regulate other modes of commerce. The Commission's five members were appointed by the president with the consent of the United States Senate. This was the first independent agency (or so-called Fourth Branch).

Over the course of the latter half of the 20th century, Congress took away many of the ICC's powers and reassigned them to other federal agencies. Congress eventually abolished the ICC in 1995 and transferred its remaining functions to the newly created Surface Transportation Board.

The ICC was established by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland. The creation of the commission was the result of widespread and longstanding anti-railroad agitation. Western farmers, specifically those of the Grange Movement, were the dominant force behind the unrest, but Westerners generally — especially those in rural areas — believed that the railroads possessed economic power that they systematically abused. A central issue was rate discrimination between similarly situated customers and communities. Other potent issues included alleged attempts by railroads to obtain influence over city and state governments and the widespread practice of granting free transportation in the form of yearly passes to opinion leaders (elected officials, newspaper editors, ministers, and so on) so as to dampen any opposition to railroad practices.

Various sections of the Interstate Commerce Act banned "personal discrimination" and required shipping rates to be "just and reasonable."

President Cleveland appointed Thomas M. Cooley as the first chairman of the ICC. Cooley had been Dean of the University of Michigan Law School and Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.

The Commission had a troubled start because the law that created it failed to give it adequate enforcement powers.

The Commission is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of the railroads, while at the same time that supervision is almost entirely nominal.

— Richard Olney, private attorney, in a letter to Charles Elliott Perkins, President of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, December 28, 1892.