29. Government-Food & Drug Administration Laws & Legislation,, 1907-1980

Summary: Series concerns the legislative history of the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (1933-1938) that strengthened the original Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906, the Food & Drug Administration's enactment of the legislation and food and drug controls in each state. Included is correspondence, draft manuscripts, newspaper & magazine clippings, Congressional hearings and bills, industry newsletters. Coinciding with the need to reform the 1906 law and the bestseller status of Arthur Kallet's and F.R. Schlink's 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs, a new food and drug bill was drafted by R.G. Tugwell for the Roosevelt Administration. Brought before the Senate Commerce Committee by Sen. Royal S. Copeland, the bill was quickly revised and resubmitted several times between 1934 and 1937. During this time the bill was argued over by Congress, consumer groups, the Roosevelt Administration, advertisers and manufacturers of food beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and proprietary medicines. The Food Drug & Cosmetic Act became law in 1938. Material covers the support and opposition of the bills, the Department of Agriculture's role, the 1906 law, the pre-1938 FDA, and several alternative bills including a bill submitted by Consumers' Research. CR favored strict food and drug reform but was consistently hostile to Senator Copeland's legislation because of its perceived weaknesses. Arthur Kallet, F.R. Schlink and J.B. Matthews testified before the Senate and occasionally made headlines. Another portion of this series concerns the administration of the new act by the FDA between 1938 and 1980. Included is material on meat and other product regulations, labelling, packaging, FDA errors, FDA attitudes and policies, enforcement, seizures, the Federal Security Agency's tenure running FDA, FDA personnel, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey's Committee on Drugs (1963-1967), and FDA periodicals (1967-1979) FDA Consumer and FDA Papers. Also included are materials on state food and drug controls including regulations, bill and laws of each state and how they relate to federal laws.

The legislative section of this series was originally filed as S-300.