An independent agency is a federal regulatory body whose members serve fixed terms and cannot be removed by the president except for cause — such as neglect of duty or malfeasance — rather than purely at presidential will. Congress creates independent agencies like the FEC, FTC, NLRB, and SEC to insulate certain regulatory functions from political pressure, recognizing that some watchdog roles require freedom from the executive branch they may need to regulate. The Supreme Court upheld this structure in Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935), though the Trump administration challenged it broadly in 2025 by firing commissioners at multiple independent agencies.