Cite as: 519 U. S. 248 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
to establish the rules of procedure of the Board, 20 CFR § 802.101 et seq. (1996), demonstrates the Secretary's indirect but substantial control over the Board and its decisions. Perhaps these concerns animated the Courts of Appeals actually confronted with this situation, since they have seen fit, in over 2,000 decisions, to allow the Director's participation as a respondent. WESTLAW, CTA database (Jan. 21, 1997). Should Congress wish to alter this review scheme, it is, of course, free to do so.
As it stands now, however, we conclude that the Director may be named as a respondent in the courts of appeals. By statute and by regulation, the adjudicative and enforcement/ litigation functions of the Department of Labor with respect to the LHWCA are divided between the ALJ's and the Benefits Review Board on the one hand, 20 CFR § 702.332 (1996) (formal hearings conducted by ALJ's); 33 U. S. C. § 921(b) (appeals from ALJ's heard by Benefits Review Board), and the Director on the other, see supra, at 262-263. Because the Benefits Review Board is a subdivision of the Department of Labor, see H. R. Rep. No. 92-1441, p. 12 (1972) (describing Board as "provid[ing] an internal administrative review of initial decisions in contested cases by a three-man board within the Department of Labor") (emphasis added); 20 CFR § 801 et seq. (1996) (describing "establishment and the organizational structure of the Benefits Review Board of the Department of Labor") (emphasis added), the Board's order is the Department's order, and the Department of Labor is the "agency" for the purposes of Rule 15(a). Congress, however, has delegated to the Secretary of Labor, the Department's chief administrator, the right to choose the Department's legal representative, 33 U. S. C. § 921a, and the Secretary has exercised that discretion by naming the Director as the Department's designated litigant in the courts of appeals. 20 CFR § 802.410(b) (1996).
This conclusion does not upset the balance of representation in the courts of appeals. Although in Newport News
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