A Chronology Of Big Government In The United States Of America

Foreword

This will be a work in progress to be published in installments! The reader may pardon the length of this blog post. Many entries are not yet fleshed out, but are only entered as a reminder. I intend to update and revise this blog post frequently as I go along.

As they say history is written by the victors. Thus it is not surprising at all that the history of big government in the USA is so little known.

Motivation

Undoubtedly, the United States is not the land of the free anymore. The Statue Of Liberty has been inconsolably weeping for many decades. Lincoln’s last best hope on earth has been meanly lost. Over its more than 230 year history the US has taken a lot of wrong turns towards centralisation and less individual freedom.

Following quote has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it”. More than 230 years later Benjamin Franklin would be gravely disappointed.

Big government has grown in leaps and bounds since at least the civil war. At least three major phases of the expansion of big government can be discerned: 1) World War I, 2) Great Depression & New Deal, and 3) Great Society.

It appears in some ways the United States mimicked or shall we say competed with the Soviet Union with the growing build up of the federal administration apparatus without the mass killings and other totalitarian atrocities.

Since the about the Civil War it appears that ever greater centralisation of power at the federal government level has triumphed over federalism in the United States. This unfortunate development is clearly unconstitutional and against the spirit of the founding fathers. The fifty laboratories of democracies have been more and more relegated to subordination. This development is a mockery of the 10^th Amendment of the US Constitution.

The expansion of big government at the federal and state level in the US was never seriously reversed to any considerable extent. This expansion would not have been possible without the active accommodation and assistance by the US Supreme Court to this day. SCOTUS has failed to defend the US Constitution and is therefore complicit.

Year	M	D	F/C	Events (Facts & Comments)
1789	7	4	F	Hamilton Tariff enacted also called the Tariff of 1789 was the second statute ever enacted by the new federal government of the United States. It also established the United States Customs Service. Future Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton was anxious to establish the tariff as a regular source of government revenue and to encourage the growth of domestic manufacturing to lessen America's then-heavy dependence on foreign-made products.
1857	3	6	F	Dred Scott v. Sandford decision by the US Supreme Court by 7–2 vote. It held that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the territories, and that people of African descent (both slave and free) were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens. Every Justice besides Chief Justice Taney wrote a separate concurrence or dissent. For the first time since Marbury v. Madison, the Court held an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional. SCOTUS has never explicitly overruled the Dred Scott case. Justice Curtis, in dissent, attacked that part of the Court's decision as obiter dicta, on the ground that once the Court determined that it did not have jurisdiction to hear Scott's case, it must simply dismiss the action, and not pass judgment on the merits of the claims. President-elect James Buchanan tried to influence the SCOTUS by writing a letter to his friend, SCOTUS Associate Justice John Catron, asking whether the case would be decided by the SCOTUS before his inauguration in March 1857. Buchanan later successfully pressured Associate Justice Robert Cooper Grier, a Northerner, to join the Southern majority in the Dred Scott decision to prevent the appearance that the decision was made along sectional lines. This holding was contrary to the practice of numerous states at the time, particularly Free states, where free blacks did in fact enjoy the rights of citizens, such as the right to vote and hold public office.
			C	This is perhaps one of the most flawed and despicable decisions of the SCOTUs ever. I have not read any of the conccurrent or dissenting opinions. It is of particular importance that in this decision SCOTUS overruled individual state practices. Was this one of earliest examples of an activist judiciary? Is it not sometimes wiser for a high court to dismiss an action or withhold judgement on a hot button issue? Did a decision like this lead to others like Plessy v. Ferguson or Roe v. Wade?
1861	8	5	F	Revenue Act of 1861 enacted imposed an income tax to be "levied, collected, and paid, upon the annual income of every person residing in the United States, whether such income is derived from any kind of property, or from any profession, trade, employment, or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any other source whatever.
			C	Civil War funding made it possible that a Federal flat rate income tax was first introduced to the US. One take particular note of the extremely comprehensive definition of income. This surely wetted the appetite of future generations of elected representatives.
1862	7	1	F	Revenue Act of 1862 enacted introducing the first progressive rate income tax to the country. The office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue was established. It specified that Federal income tax was a temporary measure that would terminate in 1866. To assure timely collection, income tax was "withheld at the source" by the employer.
			C	In war time the most aweful things happen including a progressive income tax. Private businesses were forced to become tax collectors for expediency. Today, we are complacent and take it for granted that employers deduct taxes from their employees’ paychecks. At least back then, the Act then stated an explicit deadline for it to expire. This kind of modesty is long gone.
1864	6	30	F	Revenue Act of 1864 enacted created a third tax bracket and increased taxes overall from the rates set in the Revenue Act of 1862. It imposed the tax on "the gains, profits, and income of every person residing in the United States, or of any citizen of the United States residing abroad, whether derived from any kind of property, rents, interest, dividends, or salaries, or from any profession, trade, employment, or vocation, carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any other source whatever. The Act ultimately expired in 1873 in the face of increased deficit spending.
			C
1866	4	9	F	The Civil Rights Act of 1866 enacted that was mainly intended to protect the civil rights of African-Americans, in the wake of the American Civil War. Formally titled 'An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their vindication', the Act declared that people born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude. The statute does not protect foreign visitors, diplomats, or Native Americans in the United States on reservations. Section 1981 was the first major anti-discrimination employment statute. This act prohibited employment discrimination based on race and color.
			C	Unlike its successor Act of 1964 it is an Act for all people (except natives) not only African-Americans.
1868	6	25	F	Congress passed an eight-hour law for federal employees.
			C	This was perhaps the beginning of a long series of bad big government legislation. A flood gate for more bad laws was opened. Laws prohibiting or restricting child labor are acceptable, but laws enforcing uniform and rigid work standards on adults are unconstitutional. This is also an early example of how well organised and aggressive interest groups (in this case novice labor unions) became a dominant influence.
1869			F	Noble Order of the Knights of Labor founded, the first important national labour organization in the United States. It proposed a system of worker cooperatives to replace capitalism. Membership in the Knights grew after the railway strike in 1877, reaching a peak of 700,000 in 1886.
1886			F	A year marked by 1,600 strikes (some of them violent) and the deadly Haymarket Riot in Chicago and a resulting backlash against unionism.
1886			F	Samuel Gompers fostered the separation of the cigar makers and other craft unions from the Knights of Labor to form the American Federation of Labor, of which he was president from 1886 to 1924 (except for one year, 1895). Gompers supported William Jennings Bryan's unsuccessful presidential candidacy.
1886	10	28	F	Statue of Liberty dedicated.
			C
1887			F	Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 enacted that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates. The Act was the first federal law to regulate private industry in the United States. It was later amended to regulate other modes of transportation and commerce. The act also created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the first independent regulatory agency of the US government. As part of its mission, the ICC heard complaints against the railroads and issued cease and desist orders to combat unfair practices. While the ICC was empowered to investigate and prosecute railroads and other transportation companies that were alleged to have violated the act, its jurisdiction was limited to companies that operated across state lines. Responding to a widespread public outcry about perceived abuses by railroad companies, states passed numerous pieces of legislation. Through the 1870s various constituencies, notably the Grange movement representing farmers, lobbied Congress to regulate railroads, but Congress declined to step in. However, in a decision in 1886, Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state laws regulating interstate railroads were unconstitutional because they violated the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which gives Congress the exclusive power "to regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." At the federal level, agencies patterned after the ICC included the Federal Trade Commission (1914), the Federal Communications Commission (1934), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1934), the National Labor Relations Board (1935), the Civil Aeronautics Board (1940), Postal Regulatory Commission (1970) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (1975).
			C	A soft approach to price controls.
1888			F	Arbitration Act enacted authorized the creation of federal arbitration panels with the power to investigate the causes of labor disputes and to issue non-binding arbitration awards.
			C
1888				The U.S. Congress first established a Bureau of Labor in 1888 under the Department of the Interior.
1890				Sherman Antitrust Act enacted.
1894	8	27	F	Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act enacted it imposed the first peacetime income tax (2% on income over $4,000, which meant fewer than 10% of households would pay any. The income tax provision was struck down in 1895 by the U.S. Supreme Court case Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. It was superseded by the Dingley Tariff of 1897
			C	Soak the rich as early as 1894? Sure, make them pay.
1895	4	8	F	Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. decision by the US Supreme Court by a vote of 5 to 4.
			C
1898	6	13	F	War Revenue Act of 1898 enacted. The Act authorizes a tax on tea, tobacco, beer, liquor, amusements, and some business transactions, and authorizes a $200 million bond issue. It also imposes, for the first time in U.S. history, a tax on legacies.
			C	War justifies about anything.
1898	7	1	F	The Federal Telephone Excise Tax (here an IRS publication) was introduced as a luxury tax to finance the Spanish-American War. The tax was repealed in 1902, at the end of the Spanish-American related Philippine-American War. The Act defined the base of the tax and set the rate in a single sentence. “Every person, firm, or corporation operating any telephone line or lines is required to make, within the first fifteen days of the month, a sworn statement to the collector of the number of messages or conversations transmitted over their lines during the preceding month for which a charge of 15 cents or more was imposed, and for each such message or conversation to pay a tax of .01.”
			C	This special excise tax was repealed and extended many times until about 2005. Because of this connection to war, the tax has been a frequent target of war tax resisters. What this tax exemplifies is how creative big government can be to come up with revenue sources. In this case a new, transformative technology was targeted and made it more expensive for the average American. Telecommunication services have been the target for new federal taxes not once, e.g. with the Telecommunications Act of 1997, which established the Universal Access Fee.
1898			F	The Industrial Commission was a United States government body in existence from 1898 to 1902. It was appointed by President William McKinley to investigate railroad pricing policy, industrial concentration, and the impact of immigration on labor markets, and make recommendations to the President and Congress. McKinley and the Commissioners launched the trust-busting era.
			C
1899			F	Plessy v. Ferguson decision by the US Supreme Court by a vote of 7 to 1 upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal." Probably among the most reprehensible decisions of this court.
			C	Another example of judicial activism gone awry. Where is “separate but equal” written in the US Constitution or in the Declaration of Indepence? However, this Court could not resist to add injury to insult (Scott Dred v. Sanford) thus creating a stare decisis of a SCOTUS getting involved in rewriting the Constitution and deriving new theories and this happened decades after slave trade was abolished in the British Empire. SCOTUS e.g. could have simply dismissed this case because it was orchestrated between the Comité des Citoyens and the railroad company and thereby declaring future attempts of such activist law suits as frivolous.
1900	na	na	F	International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union founded
			C
1902	7	1	F	Biologics Control Act of 1902 enacted after two incidents involving the deaths of children caused by contaminated vaccines. The first involved a tetanus-contaminated serum, which was used to produce a diphtheria antitoxin that caused the deaths of thirteen children in St. Louis, Missouri. The second involved contaminated smallpox vaccine which killed nine children in Camden, New Jersey. Both incidents were attributed to failure of proper procedures and testing by local officials. This Act set a precedent for federal regulation of biological products. The act established the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER).
			C	Unfortunately, Wikipedia lacks comprehensive history on this Act and the CBER (as of 2/11/2013). Anyway it looks like a typical acto of ursurping more power at the federal level using the pretext of tragic, isolated incidents. This Act is considered to be a precursor to the Food And Drug Act of 1906.
1903				Bureau of Corporations established predecessor of the Federal Trade Commission with sweeping power to investigate business practices; the bureau’s thoroughgoing reports were of immense assistance in antitrust cases.
1905			F	Lochner v. New York by the US Supreme Court by a 5 to 4 vote which held that "liberty of contract" was implicit in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case involved a New York law that limited the number of hours that a baker could work each day to ten, and limited the number of hours that a baker could work each week to 60. The SCOTUS rejected the argument that the law was necessary to protect the health of bakers, deciding it was a labor law attempting to regulate the terms of employment, and calling it an "unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract."
			C	Perhaps one of the last major efforts by an alas narrow decision by perhaps an already embattled SCOTUS to stem the tide of the Progressive Era.
1905			C	Agriculture Appropriation Act of enacted. It is the first permanent federal road agency.
1906			C	Pure Food And Drug Act of 1906 enacted. Harvey Washington Wiley (nicknamed the father of this Act) about 1902 became a crusader and coalition builder in support of national food and drug regulation. His work with Alice Lakey spurred one million American women to write to the White House in support of the Pure Food and Drug Act.[
			F	Who needed this kind of federal government and US Congress overreach? The private sector was already working on solutions, e.g. the Good Housekeeping Research Institute.
1906			F	Federal Meat Inspection Act
			C
1906			F	Hepburn Act of 1906 enacted that gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the power to set maximum railroad rates and extend its jurisdiction. The final version was close to what Roosevelt had asked, and easily passed Congress with only three dissenting votes. This led to the discontinuation of free passes to loyal shippers. In addition, the ICC could view the railroads' financial records, a task simplified by standardized bookkeeping systems. For any railroad that resisted, the ICC's conditions would remain in effect until the outcome of legislation said otherwise. By the Hepburn Act, the ICC's authority was extended to cover bridges, terminals, ferries, railroad sleeping cars, express companies and oil pipelines. The most important provision gave the ICC the power to replace existing rates with "just-and-reasonable" maximum rates, with the ICC to define what was just and reasonable. The Act made ICC orders binding; that is, the railroads had to either obey or contest the ICC orders in federal court. The ICC staff grew from 104 in 1890 to 178 in 1905, 330 in 1907, and 527 in 1909. Finally, the ICC gained the power to prescribe a uniform system of accounting, require standardized reports, and inspect railroad accounts. The limitation on railroad rates depreciated the value of railroad securities, a factor in causing the Panic of 1907. The ICC'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. Congress expanded ICC authority to regulate other modes of commerce beginning in 1906. The agency was abolished in 1995
			C	Big Government helping to cause a major recession like so many others in history.
1908			F	Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) formed.
			C	J. Edgar Hoover
1905			F	In Muller v. Oregon the Supreme Court upheld a decision limiting women to 10 hour workdays based on the idea that "performance of maternal functions" made women inherently incapable of the same work that men did.
			C	Where in the Constitution did the Supreme Justices find this justification?
1910			F	Wireless Ship Act enacted requiring all ships of the United States traveling over two-hundred miles off the coast and carrying over fifty passengers to be equipped with wireless radio equipment with a range of one-hundred miles. There was already an ongoing conflict between amateur radio operators and the U.S. Navy and private companies. Amateur radio enthusiasts regarded the new medium as a wide-open new frontier, free from government regulation and corporate influence. They fought against government and corporate encroachment in many ways, including by sending fake distress calls and obscene messages to naval radio stations, and forged naval commands sending navy boats on spurious missions.
			C
1911			F	Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. It was also the second deadliest disaster in New York City – after the burning of the General Slocum on June 15, 1904 – until the destruction of the World Trade Center 90 years later. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits – a common practice at the time to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks – many of the workers could not escape the burning building. Both owners of the factory were in attendance and had invited their children to the factory on that afternoon. In New York City, a Committee on Public Safety was formed, headed by Frances Perkins, a noted social worker, to identify specific problems and lobby for new legislation. The New York State Legislature then created the Factory Investigating Commission to "investigate factory conditions in this and other cities and to report remedial measures of legislation to prevent hazard or loss of life among employees through fire, unsanitary conditions, and occupational diseases. The State Commissions's reports helped modernize the state's labor laws, making New York State "one of the most progressive states in terms of labor reform." New laws mandated better building access and egress, fireproofing requirements, the availability of fire extinguishers, the installation of alarm systems and automatic sprinklers, better eating and toilet facilities for workers, and limited the number of hours that women and children could work. In the years from 1911 to 1913, sixty of the sixty-four new laws recommended by the Commission were legislated. Robert F. Wagner then was the Majority Leader of the Senate. As a result of the fire, the American Society of Safety Engineers, the world’s oldest safety society,  was founded in New York City on October 14, 1911.
1911	3	15	F	Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States decision by the US Supreme Court
			C	There were two big anti-trust decisions by SCOTUS during 1911. This is one of them, the other one involves American Tobacco Co. only three months later.
1911	5	29	F	United States v. American Tobacco Company decision by the US Supreme Court that disolved American Tobacco Co. into four companies. Four firms were created from the American Tobacco Company’s assets: American Tobacco Company, R. J. Reynolds, Liggett & Myers, and Lorillard. The monopoly became an oligopoly. The entrepreneur was none other than James Buchanan Duke like Duke University. In 1881, James Bonsack invented a cigarette-rolling machine. It produced over 200 cigarettes per minute, the equivalent of what a skilled hand roller could produce in one hour, and reduced the cost of rolling cigarettes by fifty percent. It cut each cigarette with precision, creating uniformity among the cigarettes it rolled. Duke set a deal with the Bonsack Machine Company in 1884. Duke agreed to produce all cigarettes with his two rented Bonsack machines and in return Bonsack reduced Duke’s royalties from $0.30 per thousand to $0.20 per thousand. Duke also hired one of Bonsack’s mechanics, resulting in fewer breakdowns of his machines than his competitors’. This contract resulted in a competitive advantage over Duke’s competitors; he was able to lower his prices further than others could. In the 1880s, while Duke was beginning to machine-roll all his cigarettes, he saw that growth rates in the cigarette industry were declining. His solution was to combine companies and found “one of the first great holding companies in American history.” Duke spent $800,000 on advertising in 1889 and lowered his prices, accepting net profits of less than $400,000, forcing his major competitors to lower their prices and, in 1890, join his consortium by the name of the American Tobacco Company. American Tobacco produced 90% of the cigarettes made in 1890, the first year the American Tobacco Company was listed on the NYSE. Within two decades of its founding, the American Tobacco company absorbed about 250 companies and produced 80% of the cigarettes, plug tobacco, smoking tobacco, and snuff produced in the United States. In 1875, the Allan & Ginter company in Richmond, Virginia offered a prize of US$ 75,000 for the invention of a machine able to roll cigarettes. Bonsack took up the challenge and left school to devote his time to building such a machine. In 1880, he had a first working prototype, which was destroyed by a fire while in storage at Lynchburg, Virginia. Bonsack re-built it and filed a patent application on September 4, 1880. Before Mr. Buchanan’s invention cigarettes were a luxury item, because they were hand rolled, but became increasingly popular. In 1946 was another case against this company: AMERICAN TOBACCO CO. v. UNITED STATES, 328 U.S. 781 (1946)
			C	There were two big anti-trust decisions by SCOTUS during 1911. This is one of them, the other one involves Standard Oil Co. only three months earlier. What was wrong with this company reducing prices for a consumer product?  Here we have an entrepreneur seing his opportunity to make money by employing a new invention and making a deal with this inventor. The role of government in a free market, free individual society is not to break up privately owned companies and to interfere with property rights, but to make sure that competitors (domestic or foreign) have a chance to compete.
1912	na	na		Progressive Party (United States, 1912)
1912				Radio Act enacted that mandated that all radio stations in the United States be licensed by the federal government, as well as mandating that seagoing vessels continuously monitor distress frequencies. It included amateur radio operators prohibiting those amateurs from transmitting over the main commercial and military wavelengths. Amateurs were limited to transmitting signals that were below a wavelength of 200 meters (1.5 MHz). In addition to being limited by wavelength, amateurs were also limited to location and operating hours. Under Section 2 of the act to close down any or all radio stations in the United States. In accordance with the Act, the government did just this during World War I. Between 1912 and 1927, radio was regulated by the United States Department of Commerce. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover played a strong role in shaping radio. His powers were limited by federal court decisions, however; in particular, he was not allowed to deny broadcasting licenses to anyone who wanted one. The result was that many people perceived the airwaves to suffer from "chaos," with too many stations trying to be heard on too few frequencies. Others believed the government simply wanted to control content.
1912				Lloyd – La Follette Act enacted began the process of protecting civil servants in the United States from unwarranted or abusive removal by codifying "just cause" standards previously embodied in presidential orders. It was passed with the intention of conferring job protection rights on federal employees which they had not previously had. Prior to the enactment of this language, there was no such statutory inhibition on the authority of the government to discharge a federal employee, and an employee could be discharged with or without cause for conduct which was not protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
1913			F	Revenue/Tariff Act of 1913 enacted to establish the first permanent income tax in the USA. It was a progressive tax.
			C
1913	2	3	F	16th Amendment to US Constitution adopted establishing a permanent federal income tax.
			C	Maybe one of the worst amendments of all. Why was there no Tea Party against this amendment? Where the American people sleeping or complacent?
1913	5	31	F	17th Amendment to US Constitution adopted establishing.
			C	Should it not have been left to the individual states to choose how to elect or appoint senators? the election of senators by the states reassured Antifederalists that there would be some protection against the swallowing up of states and their powers by an ever-expanding federal government, providing a check on the power of the federal government.
1913				US Department of Labor established.
1913			F	Federal Reserve Act enacted
			C
1913			F	Kingsbury Commitment between AT&T and the US Attorney General that established AT&T as a government sanctioned monopoly. in which AT&T would sell their $30 million in Western Union stock, allow competitors to interconnect with their system, and not acquire other independent companies without permission from the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Under this Commitment AT&T was allowed operate in a noncompetitive economic environment in exchange for subjection to price and quality service regulation. The government asserted that a monopolistic telephone industry would best serve the goal of creating a “universal” network with compatible technology country wide for telephone consumers. Regulators emphasized limits on profits, enforcing “reasonable” prices for service, setting levels of depreciation and investment for new technology and equipment, dependability and “universality” of service.
			C	This is maybe one of the earliest example where big business colluded with the federal government to agree to some corporatist anti-competition agreement in contravention of free markets. This monopoly of AT&T was protected and maintained by the federal government until 1984. This is an early, prime example of big government pro trust policies. This is a remarkable case of partial nationalization of a private business by big government. It took the federal government and the US Congress only 70 years to correct this grave mistake. Without this extraordinary big government intervention history would have been quite different because “when Bell's original patent expired 15 years later in 1894, the telephone market opened to competition and 6,000 new telephone carriers started while the Bell Telephone company took a significant financial downturn.” Without this government intervention AT&T most likely would have come to be known as Ma Bell, it would have had either to adopt to competitive pressures or gone bust. Thus, big government quashed this burst of competition and innovation in this key industry of the 20th century.
1914	12	14	F	Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 enacted
			C
1914			C	Clayton Antitrust Act enacted
			F
1914	9	26		Federal Trade Commision established
1916			F	Federal Farm Loan Act enacted aimed at increasing credit to rural, family farmers. It did so by creating a federal farm loan board, twelve regional farm loan banks and tens of farm loan associations.
1916			F	Adamson Act of 1916enacted that established an eight-hour workday, with additional pay for overtime work, for interstate railroad workers. Congress passed the Act in order to avoid a nationwide strike. The railroad unions, desiring shorter working days and better pay, threatened strike action in the second half of 1916. To avert a strike, President Woodrow Wilson secured Congressional passage of the Adamson Act. This was the first federal law that regulated the hours of workers in private companies. The United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Act in 1917. It was repealed in 1996.
			C
1917				The United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Abramson Act of 1916 in Wilson v. New, 243 U.S. 332.
1917				Pre-WW I federal expenditures estimated at ca. 1.5% of GNP (gross national product)
1917				Declaration of World War I (WW I)
1917	12	26	F	Railroads are nationalized. President Woodrow Wilson issued an order for nationalization on December 26, 1917. Management by the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) led to standardization of equipment, reductions of duplicative passenger services and better coordination of freight traffic.[18]:175 Federal control of the railroads ended in March 1920.[
			C
1917				Espionage Act passed.
1917				Food and Fuel Control Act enacted that among other things created the United States Food Administration and the Federal Fuel Administration. The act was a very controversial piece of legislation. It was repealed in 1921.
1917				Federal Fuel Administration established by Executive Order 2690 pursuant to the Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917. The first head of this administraion selected local administrators for each state. Fuel committees were organized down to the county level. The activities of the administration included setting and enforcing the prices of coal. The administration had broad powers to set the price of coal at various points (mine, dock) and the cost of transportation (by rail), and in regards to end use (home, factory, or business, etc.). Daylight Savings Time was formally adopted in the United States in 1918 by the Fuel Administration
1917			F	The National Federation of Federal Employees was founded in Washington, D.C., on September 17, 1917. In 1918, it became the first labor union to win the legal right to represent federal workers.
			C
			F
			C
1918	6	na	F	The entire AT&T network was nationalized during World War I from June 1918 to July 1919. Following re-privatization, AT&T resumed its near-government created monopoly position.
			C	Almost the entire history of AT&T is text book example of big government intervention of the worst kind.
1918				War Labor Board, disbanded in May 1919, but may have served as a model for the NLRB.
1918				Alien And Seditions Act passed authorizing deportation of allegedly disloyal aliens and jailing of citizens for “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive” speech.
1919				End of WW I federal expenditures are estimated at 22% of GNP compared to a pre-WW I level of ca. 1.5% of GNP.
1919	3	3	F	Schenck v. United States unanimous decision by the US Supreme Court that upheld the Espionage Act of 1917 and concluded that a defendant did not have a First Amendment right to express freedom of speech against the draft during World War I. Ultimately, the case established the "clear and present danger" test, which lasted until 1969 when protection for speech was raised in Brandenburg v. Ohio to "Imminent lawless action". Charles Schenck was the Secretary of the Socialist Party of America and was responsible for printing, distributing, and mailing to prospective military draftees during World War I, including 15,000 leaflets that advocated opposition to the draft. These leaflets contained statements such as; "Do not submit to intimidation", "Assert your rights", "If you do not assert and support your rights, you are helping to deny or disparage rights which it is the solemn duty of all citizens and residents of the United States to retain," on the grounds that military conscription constituted involuntary servitude, which is prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment. In the opinion's most famous passage, Justice Holmes sets out the "clear and present danger" test: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. [...] The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.”
			C
1920	na	na	F	Esch–Cummins Act of 1920 enacted that returned railroads to private operation after World War I, with much regulation. It also officially encouraged private consolidation of railroads and mandated that the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ensure their profitability. Terminated federal control of railroads, effective March 1, 1920. Authorized the government to make settlements with railroad carriers for matters caused by nationalization, such as compensation and other expenses. Directed the ICC to prepare and adopt a plan for the consolidation of the railway properties of the United States into a limited number of systems. See Ripley Plan. Granted authority to the ICC to set minimum shipping rates, oversee railroads' financial operations, and regulate acquisitions and mergers. Established procedures for settling labor disputes between railroads and employees. A Railroad Labor Board was created to regulate wages and settle disputes. The Act was repealed in 1926 by the Railway Labor Act.
			C	Did this Act really mandate that a federal agency ensure profitability? What a hubris! This all happened while the new trucking industry became a competitor.
1924				Railway Labor Act enacted governing labor relations in the railroad and airline industries.
1926			F	Federal Radio Commission (FRC) established later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission in 1934. The Commission was created to regulate radio use "as the public convenience, interest, or necessity requires.” The five-person FRC was given the power to grant and deny licenses, and to assign frequencies and power levels for each licensee. The Commission was not given any official power of censorship, although programming could not include "obscene, indecent, or profane language." In practice, the Commission could take into consideration programming when renewing licenses, and their ability to take away a broadcaster's license enabled them to control content to some degree. The Commission also had little power over networks; in fact, the Radio Act of 1927 made almost no mention of the radio networks (notably NBC and, a bit later CBS) that were in the process of dominating radio. The act did not authorize the Federal Radio Commission to make any rules regulating advertising.
1927				Radio Act enacted and signed by President Calvin Coolidge which transferred most of the responsibility for radio to a newly created Federal Radio Commission. A forerunner of the "equal-time rule" was stated in section (18) which ordered stations to give equal opportunities for political candidates. The act did vest in the Federal Radio Commission the power to revoke licenses and give fines for violations of the act. The Act divided the country into five geographical zones. Each zone was represented by one of the five Commissioners.
1928				The 1928 reauthorization of the Radio Act of 1927 included a provision, called the "Davis Amendment" after its sponsor Ewin L. Davis, that required each of the five zones to have equal allocations of licenses, time of operation, station power, and wavelength.
1928				In the spring of 1928, the Federal Radio Commission made drastic reallocations and told 164 stations to justify their existence or be forced to stop broadcasting (these hearings came under the title of General Order 32). Many low-powered independent stations were eliminated, although eighty-one stations did survive, most with reduced power. Educational stations fared particularly poorly.
1929				President Herbert Hoover authorized the Mexican Repatriation program. The program was largely a forced migration of approximately 500,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans to Mexico, and continued until 1937.
1929				Federal Farm Board established.
1929				Agriculture Marketing Act enacted to allow the Federal Farm Board to buy, sell and store agricultural surpluses or by generously lending money to farm organizations.
1930				Wage controls. President Hoover revived the business-government conferences of his time at the Department of Commerce by summoning major business leaders to the White House several times that fall. He asked them to pledge not to reduce wages in the face of rising unemployment.
1930				Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act enacted that raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels. One of the major causes of the Great Depression.
1930	6	30		Federal Radio Commission denied the request by the KFKB Milford, Kansas radio station for renewal finding that its broadcasts were mostly advertising, which violated international treaties, that he broadcast obscene material, and that his Medical Question Box series was "contrary to the public interest".. John R. Brinkley appealed on the grounds of censorship. The U.S. Court of Appeals denied his appeal. The court ruled that the Federal Radio Commission could consider past programming content without it being censorship. “Dr. Brinkley personally broadcasts during three one-half hour periods daily over the station, the broadcast being referred to as the "medical question box," and is devoted to diagnosing and prescribing treatment of cases from symptoms given in letters addressed either to Dr. Brinkley or to the station. Patients are not known to the doctor except by means of their letters, each letter containing a code signature, which is used in making answer through the broadcasting station. The doctor usually advises that the writer of the letter is suffering from a certain ailment, and recommends the procurement from one of the members of the Brinkley Pharmaceutical Association, of one or more of Dr. Brinkley's prescriptions, designated by numbers. … In its "Facts and Grounds for Decision," the commission held "that the practice of a physician's prescribing treatment for a patient whom he has never seen, and bases his diagnosis upon what symptoms may be recited by the patient in a letter addressed to him, is inimical to the public health and safety, and for that reason is not in the public interest";”
1931				Davis–Bacon Act enacted established the requirement for paying the local prevailing wages on public works projects. In 1927, a contractor employed African-American workers from Alabama to build a Veterans' Bureau hospital in the district of Congressman Bacon from New York. This act was expanded several times since then.
1931				National Credit Corporation formed by President Herbert Hoover in 1931. It was a consortium of the major banks in the country. Member banks were to provide loans to smaller banks to prevent them from collapsing.
1931	11			The Federal Radio Commission revoked Robert P. Shuler's broadcast license, and KGEF went off the air. KGEF was the second radio station to have its license revoked by the FRC. Shuler appealed the revocation, but the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed the decision. The court denounced the character of Shuler's broadcasts and declared that if such use of the airwaves were permitted, "radio will become a scourge and the nation a theater for the display of individual passions and the collision of personal interests." Owned by "Battling Bob" Robert P. Shuler, he built his radio station at Trinity Methodist Church, South, in downtown Los Angeles from a donation from Methodist philanthropist Lizzie Glide, who also funded San Francisco's famous Glide Memorial Church. The station quickly ran afoul of the political interests of a corrupt Los Angeles, who didn't appreciate either Shuler's reactionary politics or his often accurate knowledge of who was being paid off by whom.
1932	3	na		Brain Trust
1932				American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was founded in 1932 as the Wisconsin State Administrative, Clerical, Fiscal and Technical Employees Association
1932				Federal Home Loan Bank Act enacted to lower the cost of home ownership. It established the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to charter and supervise federal savings and loan institutions. It also created the Federal Home Loan Banks which lend to S&Ls in order to finance home mortgages.
1932	6	6	F	Revenue Act of 1932 enacted raised United States tax rates across the board, with the rate on top incomes rising from 25 percent to 63 percent. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15 percent. This Act also reinstated the Federal Telephone Excise Tax, which has been in effect since then.
			C	This is another major cause of the Great Depression.
1932				Norris–La Guardia Act enacted banned yellow-dog contracts, barred the federal courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent labor disputes, and created a positive right of noninterference by employers against workers joining trade unions.
1932			F	Emergency Relief and Construction Act of 1932 enacted the United States's first major-relief legislation, enabled under Herbert Hoover and later adopted and expanded by Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his New Deal. It created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation which released funds for public works projects across the country.
1932			F	Reconstruction Finance Corporation an independent agency of the United States government, established and chartered by the US Congress in 1932. It was modeled after the War Finance Corporation of World War I. The agency gave $2 billion in aid to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage associations and other businesses.
1933				President Herbert Hoover raised federal government spending by 48% during his four year term during a period of deflation. The budget deficits of 1931 and 1932 were 52.5% and 43.3% of total federal expenditures.
1933				President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Frances Perkins as Secretary of the Department of Labor, “a noted social worker”. She became the longest serving US Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945.
1933	6	16		National Industrial Recovery Act enacted
1933				Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation established.
1933				Glass–Steagall Act or Banking Act enacted that limited commercial bank securities activities and affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms.[
1934				Federal Credit Union Act enacted to make credit available and promote thrift through a national system of nonprofit, cooperative credit unions.
1934				Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act enacted that restricted the ability of banks to repossess farms. In May 1935, the US Supreme Court reviewed the law in Louisville Joint Stock Land Bank v. Radford. The Act was ruled unconstitutional because it deprived secured creditors of their property rights in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States ConstitutionAfter revision in 1935 it expired in 1949.
1934				National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) established.
1934			F	Communications Act of 1934 enacted. In 1934, the government set AT&T up as a regulated monopoly under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission. As a result, by 1940 the Bell System effectively owned most telephone service in the United States, from local and long-distance service to the telephones themselves. This allowed Bell to prohibit their customers from connecting phones not made or sold by Bell to the system without paying fees.
			C
1934	6	6	F	Securities Exchange Act of 1934 enacted
			C
1934	6	6	F	US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formed.
			C
1934	6	26	F	National Firearms Act (NFA) enacted and superceded by Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. It imposes a statutory excise tax on the manufacture and transfer of certain firearms and mandates the registration of those firearms. All transfers of ownership of registered NFA firearms must be done through the federal NFA registry. The NFA also requires that transport of NFA firearms across state lines by the owner must be reported to the ATF. The purpose of the NFA[1] was to regulate what were considered "gangster weapons" such as machine guns and short barreled shotguns. “While the NFA was enacted by Congress as an exercise of its authority to tax, the NFA had an underlying purpose unrelated to revenue collection. As the legislative history of the law discloses, its underlying purpose was to curtail, if not prohibit, transactions in NFA firearms.” (Emphasis added. Source).
			C	Echoes of ObamaCare: An exercise of Congress’s authority to tax, its real underlying purpose to prohibit transactions in NFA firearms.
1934	6	19	F	Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established succeeding the Federal Radio Commission. The FCC controlled telephone rates to limit the profits of AT&T and ensure nondiscriminatory pricing. In the 1960s, the FCC began allowing other long-distance companies, namely MCI, to offer specialized services. In the 1970s, the FCC allowed other companies to expand offerings to the public.
			C	This commission should be put out of commission the faster, the better. It is a prime example of big government overreach. Further research is needed, but I believe the FCC protected and sustained for 50 years the vertical national monopoly of AT&T over telephone services in the US until the famous divestiture of AT&T in 1984. Thus, the FCC effectively prevented rapid progress in telephony technology. By fixing pricing for telephone services, the FCC exerted for decades extensive government price controls in a crucial market of the US economy.
1935	na	na	F	Motor Carrier Act of 1935
1935			F	Bankhead–Jones Act to provide increased federal funding to land grant colleges. Under the law as was last increased in 1972, $8,100,000 per year is divided equally between all states, and another $4,360,000 is divided between the states based upon each state's population.
1935			F	National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) enacted protecting the rights of employees in the private sector to discuss organizing and workplace issues with coworkers, engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of protected concerted activity in support of their demands.
1936			F	Walsh–Healey Public Contracts Act enacted applies to U.S. government contracts exceeding $15,000 for the manufacture or furnishing of goods; establishes overtime pay for hours worked by contractor employees in excess of 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week, and sets the minimum wage equal to the prevailing wage as determined by the Secretary of Labor; prohibits the employment of youths less than 16 years of age and convicts, except under certain conditions; sets standards for the use of convict labor, and job health and safety standards.
1936				Robinson-Patman Act enacted
1937	9	1		Housing Act of 1937 (a.k.a. sometimes called the Wagner-Steagall Act) enacted provided for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies to improve living conditions for low-income families.
1937				Judicial Procedures Reform Bill or [US Supreme] “court packing plan” a legislative initiative proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the US Supreme Court. Roosevelt's purpose was to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that had been previously ruled unconstitutional.
1937			F	West Coast Hotel v. Parrish decision by the US Supreme Court by a 5 to 4 vote upholding the constitutionality of a state minimum wage law. This decision is said to have overturned Lochner v. New York of 1905. The swing vote by Justice Owen Roberts is referred to as the “switch in time that saved nine”.
			C	Did a weak Chief Justice Roberts a similar switch with Obamacare?
1937				Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act enacted provided authority for federal marketing orders. Under the authority of this permanent law and subsequent amendments, marketing orders have been established for milk as well as numerous fruits, vegetables, and specialty crops.
1937				Hugo Black nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court. He remained on the court until 1971.
1938			F	Fair Labor Standards Act enacted introduced a maximum 44-hour seven-day workweek, established a national minimum wage, guaranteed 'time-and-a-half' for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term that is defined in the statute. It applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. As enacted, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented about twenty percent of the U.S. labor force.
			C	These are massive big government imposed price and quantity controls. The only defenisble thing her is the prohibition of child labor.
1938			F	Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Successor of the Pure Food And Drug Act of 1906.
1938			F	Agricultural Adjustment Act enacted which restricted agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant part of their land (that is, to let a portion of their fields lie fallow) and to kill off excess livestock.
			C
1941	4	28	F	In Mitchell v. United States, the United States Supreme Court rules that discrimination in which a colored man who had paid a first class fare for an interstate journey was compelled to leave that car and ride in a second class car was essentially unjust, and violated the Interstate Commerce Act. The court thus overturns an ICC order dismissing a complaint against an interstate carrier. The plain language of the Act (forbidding "undue or unreasonable preference" as well as "personal discrimination") should have prevented the ICC from defending racial seggregation. In at least two landmark cases, however, the Commission sided with the railroads rather than with the black American passengers who had filed complaints. In both Mitchell v. United States and Henderson v. United States, the Supreme Court took a more expansive view of the Act than the Commission.
			C	Did the heavy-handed regulation of the railroads since 1887 by big government contribute to the prolongation of race discrimination?
1941	8	28	F	The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the US government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA were originally to control money (price controls) and rents after the outbreak of World War II. The OPA had the power to place ceilings on all prices except agricultural commodities, and to ration scarce supplies of other items, including tires, automobiles, shoes, nylon, sugar, gasoline, fuel oil, coffee, meats and processed foods. At the peak, almost 90% of retail food prices were frozen. It could also authorize subsidies for production of some of those commodities. The OPA was abolished effective May 29, 1947. During the Korean War, similar functions were performed by the Office of Price Stabilization (OPS).
			C	N.B. that OPA was not abolished until two years after the war.
1942	1	30	F	Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 enacted
			C
1942				New National War Labor Board established, ceased operating in 1946, was predecessor of NLRB.
1942				US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066 declaring about 1/3 of the Western U
1942				Internment of ca. 110,000 Japanese Americans
1943			F	Current Tax Payment Act of 1943 enacted re-introduced the concept of tax withholding in the United States. (Tax withholding had been introduced in the Tariff Act of 1913 but repealed by the Income Tax Act of 1916.) and quarterly tax payments. It compelled employers to withhold federal income taxes from workers' paychecks and pay them directly to the government on the workers' behalf.
			C	Employers were coerced to become tax collectors for their employees! Very efficient, but citizens were reduced to servants. That this happened during war time is very revealing and typical for how big government expands.
1944				Korematsu v. United States decision by the US Supreme Court by a 6 to 3 vote upholding the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II.
1946				Employment Act
1947	na	na	F	Federal Housing and Rent Act of 1947
			C
1949	na	na	F	Housing Act of 1949 was a landmark, sweeping expansion of the federal role in mortgage insurance and issuance and the construction of public housing. It was part of President Harry Truman's program of domestic legislation, the Fair Deal. The main elements of the Act included:  providing federal financing for slum clearance programs associated with urban renewal projects in American cities (Title I),  increasing authorization for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance (Title II),  extending federal money to build more than 800,000 public housing units (Title III)
			C
1949			F	In 1949, the United States Department of Justice alleged in an antitrust lawsuit that AT&T and the Bell System operating companies were using their government created near-monopoly in telecommunications to attempt to establish unfair advantage in related technologies, especially the fledgling computer industry.
			C	Is this not a parody or hypocrisy, first big government sanctions, establishes and maintains this vertical monopoly AT&T for decades since the so called Kingsbury Commitment of 1913, then they bring anti trust allegations. A nice example of the vicious cycle or spiral of government intervention, one leads to another (Ludwig von Mises smiles).
1950			F	Celler-Kefauver Act enacted
			C
1950	6	5	F	In Henderson v. United States, the Supreme Court rules to abolish segregation of reserved tables in railroad dining cars. The Southern Railway had reserved tables in such a way as to allocate one table conditionally for blacks and multiple tables for whites; a black passenger traveling first-class was not served in the dining car as the one reserved table was in use. The ICC ruled the discrimination to be an error in judgement on the part of an individual dining car steward; both the United States District Court for the District of Maryland and the Supreme Court disagreed, finding the published policies of the railroad itself to be in violation of the Interstate Commerce Act.
			C	Did the heavy-handed regulation of the railroads since 1887 by big government contribute to the prolongation of race discrimination?
1953	9	1	F	In Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, Women's Army Corps private Sarah Keys, represented by civil rights lawyer Dovey Roundtree, becomes the first black to challenge the "separate but equal" doctrine in bus segregation before the ICC. While the initial ICC reviewing commissioner declined to accept the case, claiming Brown v. Board of Education (1954) "did not preclude segregation in a private business such as a bus company,"
1954			F	Berman v. Parker decision by the US Supreme Court by a vote of 8 to 0 holding private property could be taken for a public purpose with just compensation.
			C
1954			F	Internal Revenue Code of 1954 enacted The Federal Telephone Excise Tax imposed on both local and long distance calls (for messages costing more than 24 cents) were reduced from 15% to 10%. This tax rate was in effect until 1966.
			C	Can you imagine a 10% or even previously a 15% excise tax on all phone calls in effect for over a decade.
1955	7	14	F	Air Pollution Control Act of 1955 enacted. was the first United States Clean Air Act enacted by Congress to address the national environmental problem of air pollution. This was "an act to provide research and technical assistance relating to air pollution control". The act "left states principally in charge of prevention and control of air pollution at the source". The act put the federal government in a purely informational role, authorizing the United States Surgeon General to conduct research, investigate, and pass out information "relating to air pollution and the prevention and abatement thereof". Prior to the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955, little headway was made to initiate this air pollution reform. U.S. cities Chicago and Cincinnati first established smoke ordinances in 1881. In 1904, Philadelphia passed an ordinance limiting the amount of smoke in flues, chimneys, and open spaces. The ordinance imposed a penalty if not all smoke inspections were passed. It wasn't until 1947 that California authorized the creation of Air Pollution Control Districts in every county of the state.[
1956			F	The outcome of the 1949 anti trust suit against AT&T was a 1956 consent decree limiting AT&T to 85% of the United States' national telephone network and certain government contracts, and precluding the Bell System from extending its reach into the fledgling computer industry and from continuing to hold interests in Canada and the Caribbean.
			C	This actually was the first government forced break up of the government created monopoly of AT&T. The Caribbean operations of AT&T had to be sold to ITT.
1961	3	6	F	President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925, which required government contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." It established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. This was the forerunner of the EEOC.
			C	How many employers at the time actually violated this? How intrusive would big government have to be to enforce this?
1962			F	Executive Order 10988 (full text) signed by President John F. Kennedy establishing the right of federal wrkers to engage in collective bargaining. Consequently, union membership among U.S. government employees soared from 13 percent in 1961 to 60 percent in the 1974.
			C	An irresponsible act by JFK.
1963	6	10	F	Equal Pay Act of 1963 enacted as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women’s salaries vis-à-vis men’s have risen dramatically since the EPA’s enactment, from 62% of men’s earnings in 1970 to 80% in 2004.
			C	Would it not have happened without this law anyway? Any such Acts are forms of big government price controls.
1963	12	17	F	Clean Air Act enacted designed to control air pollution on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to protect the public from airborne contaminants known to be hazardous to human health. The Clean Air Act was the first major environmental law in the United States to include a provision for citizen suits.
			C
1964	na	na	F	Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 enacted. Perhaps one of the earliest attempts of big government to take over mass transportation.
			C	Wall Street Journal on 2/9/2013 on the Opinion pages said “At the time of this [of this Act] private transit companies were going broke because of unwieldy labor agreements. So Congress offered money to municipalities to acquire the transit systems, … In return for the cash, the public transit agencies had to agree to honor existing labor agreements and preserve pay, benefits and jobs … These mandates still apply to most mass transit agencies that get a check from Uncle Sam. In recent years unison have used the law to prevent public tansit agencies from outsourcing work to the private sector If private contractors cut workers pay, public agencies by law have to make up the difference between the old and the new wages. They also have to pay six years [not a misspelling] of severance pay to laid-off employees.”
1964	7	9	F	Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) formed as an agency within the US Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems. In 1991, it was renamed the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Public transportation includes buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, monorail, passenger ferry boats, trolleys, inclined railways, and people movers. The federal government, through the FTA, provides financial assistance to develop new transit systems and improve, maintain, and operate existing systems. The FTA oversees grants to state and local transit providers, primarily through its ten regional offices. These grantees are responsible for managing their programs in accordance with federal requirements, and the FTA is responsible for ensuring that grantees follow federal mandates along with statutory and administrative requirements.
			C
1964	7	2	F	Civil Rights Act of 1964 enacted. In United States employment law, the doctrine of disparate impact holds that employment practices may be considered discriminatory and illegal if they have a disproportionate "adverse impact" on members of a minority group. Under the doctrine, a violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act may be proven by showing that an employment practice or policy has a disproportionately adverse effect on members of the protected class as compared with non-members of the protected class.[
			C	A much celebrated Act, but was it warranted? An Act that leads to obscure legal theories like “disparate impact” should be repealed instantly. Why does the this Act not protect Asian minorities?
1965				Food and Agriculture Act enacted the first multiyear farm legislation, provided for four year commodity programs for wheat, feed grains, and upland cotton.
1965			F	Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act
			C
1965	7	2	F	Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) formed is a federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, genetic information, and retaliation for reporting, participating in, and/or opposing a discriminatory practice.
			C	Another one of these big government monstrosities.
1966			F	Lyndon B. Johnson establishing the federal United States Department of Transportation (DOT) in 1966
			C
1966			F	Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 enacted. Predecessor to the Endangered Species Act of 1969.
			C
1967	12	15	F	Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 enacted which prohibits discrimination in hiring, promotions, wages, or termination of employment and layoffs; statements or specifications in job notices or advertisements of age preference and limitations. The only good part were amendments like since 1986 it has prohibited mandatory retirement in most sectors, with phased elimination of mandatory retirement for tenured workers, such as college professors, in 1993.
			C	What a superflous act by big government do gooders! I did not know I was already protected or impaired by this act when I reached age 40. As if people in their prime need such protection. This is primarily a public works act for attorneys and the courts just look at the case law that evolved to this day.
1968	1	1	F	the first seat belt law was a federal law which took effect on January 1, 1968 that required all vehicles (except buses) to be fitted with seat belts in all designated seating positions. This law has since been modified to require three-point seat belts in outboard seating positions, and finally three-point seat belts in all seating positions.
			C	Dangerous big governement paternalism.
1968			F	Civil Rights Act of 1968 enacted that provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. The Act was signed into law during the King assassination riots. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act. Since 1988, the act protects people with disabilities and families with children.
			C	As a President you don’t necessarily sign such laws during riots as if you are giving in to violence.
1968	3	6	F	xxx decision by the US Supreme Court to desegregate the private Girard College in Philadelphia overruling the will of Stephen Girard. Stephen Girard was one of the first tycoons of the US, financier of the American Revolution, and one of the earliest most generous philanthropists. By this decision, SCOTUS extended desegregation to private schools.
			C	There is more to this story than can be presented here. Instead of upholding the will of such an accomplished man, the SCOTUS chose to succumb to street violence and protest in utter disrespect of the will of this great man. The law suit against the College was a typical setup by single issue activists. Stephen Girard most likely was no racist or purveyor of gender discrimination. What difference would it have made to spare this single school or other similar schools from using government brute coecion to deseggregate and to admit girls? Girard College was founded at a very different time. The ends do not justify the means in this case. On the contrary, if the SCOTUS can not uphold the will of such a man how can it defend the Constitution? Would not over time have the board members of this school decided themselves to open this school to admit black and female students? The National Archives celebrate/glorify this egregious act of property rights violation as “Education Resources on School Desegregation/ School Desegregation and Civil Rights Stories:  Girard College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania”. To quote from the National Archives: “In another public arena, the admissions policy of Girard College became one of the significant tests of school segregation in the City of Philadelphia. … More than thirteen years after Brown, a final ruling and affirmation by the Supreme Court of the United States found that Girard's will was superseded by the Brown decision.”
1968	10	22	F	Gun Control Act enacted broadly regulates the firearms industry and firearms owners. It primarily focuses on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers. It mandated the licensing of individuals and companies engaged in the business of selling firearms. This provision effectively prohibited the direct mail order of firearms (except antique firearms) by consumers and mandated that anyone who wants to buy a gun in an interstate transaction from a source other than a private individual must do so through a federally licensed firearms dealer. The law also required that all newly-manufactured firearms produced by licensed manufacturers in the United States and imported into the United States bear a serial number. Defacement or removal of the serial number (if present) is a felony offense. Importation of National Firearms Act firearms was banned by the 1968 Gun Control Act which implemented a "sporting" clause. Only firearms judged by ATF to have feasible sporting applications can be imported for civilian use.
			C	A crass overreaction to the killing of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther, Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy.
1970	1	1	F	National Environmental Policy Act enacted. It established a US national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment and also established the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). It set up procedural requirements for all federal government agencies to prepare environmental assessments (EAs) and environmental impact statements (EISs). The law has since been applied to any project, federal, state, or local, that involves federal funding, work performed by the federal government, or permits issued by a federal agency. Court decisions throughout the law's history have expanded the requirement for NEPA-related environmental studies to include actions where permits from a federal agency are required, regardless of whether or not federal funds are spent implementing the action.
			C	Growing concerns about ecological and wildlife well-being,the public outcry after the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill was perhaps the leading catalyst.
1970	12	2	F	The Environmental Protection Agency was established.
			C
1970	na	na	F	Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970 enacted added to the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 by authorizing an additional $12 billion of the same type of matching funds. Earlier legislative attempts at establishing a federal transit funding program were opposed by labor unions because they did not protect unionized workers, and thus failed to gain sufficient support in Congress. The unions feared that public entities would take over failing privately held transportation companies and cease to recognize the union. The version that finally did pass included provisions that require public entities receiving federal transit money to enter into protective agreements (often referred to as "Section 13(c) agreements") that would be approved by the Department of Labor. The Secretary of Labor must certify that the transit authority has made a "fair and equitable" labor protective arrangement before the authority can receive assistance.
1971	1	1	F	Uniform Monday Holiday Act enacted. that amended the federal holiday provisions of the United States Code to establish the observance of certain holidays on Mondays. The Act was signed into law on June 28, 1968 and took effect on January 1, 1971. The Act moved Washington's Birthday (originally February 22), Memorial Day (May 30), Columbus Day (October 12), and Veterans Day (November 11) from fixed dates to designated Mondays. The Act was designed to increase the number of three-day weekends for federal employees. Veterans Day was removed from this list of "always-on-Monday" holidays when it was moved back to its traditional date of November 11, by act of Congress in 1975,[specify] effective 1978.
			C	Just the name of this Act sends shivers down one’s spine. This Act is symptomatic for Big Government. The Sowiet Union could not have done it better. No wonder high school children are historically challenged. It is very revealing that Veterans Day was reverted back to the original day to remember so that we remember that World War I ended on November 11.
1971	8	15	F	President Richard Nixon issues the Executive Order 11615 captioned “Providing for Stabilization of Prices, Rents, Wages, and Salaries”. The 90 day freeze turned into nearly 1,000 days of measures known as Phases One, Two, Three, and Four. It also imposed a 10% import surcharge.The wage and price controls were mostly dismantled by April, 1974. By that time, the U.S. inflation rate had reached double digits.
			C	The initial 90 day freeze was unprecedented in peacetime. The attempt to dampen inflation by employing massive, broadly based government price controls was a monumental failure. Any reasonable economist could have told Nixon that such price controls are doomed and futile all throughout human history.
1971	na	na	F	In Reed v. Reed became the first US Supreme Court decision to invoke the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to protect women from discrimination on the basis of sex.
			C	Who protects men against sex discrimination (e.g. when applying for pole dancer or midwife)? This is misunderstood, midieval chivalry
1972	10	13	F	Office of Technology Assessment Act of 1972 established the Office of Technology Assessment. This office was closed 9/25/1995 by defunding. At the time of closing it had a staff of 143 people and a budget of about $22 million.
			C	It was called an unnecessary agency duplicating the government work done elsewhere. Wikipedia has nothing notable to mention about this agency other than it was copied abroad, e.g. by the European Union. Was this a public works program?
1974	9	2	F	Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) enacted. A federal law which establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry and provides for extensive rules on the federal income tax effects of transactions associated with employee benefit plans. In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy created the President's Committee on Corporate Pension Plans. The movement for pension reform gained some momentum when the Studebaker Corporation, an automobile manufacturer, closed its plant in 1963. Its pension plan was so poorly funded that Studebaker could not afford to provide all employees with their pensions.
1974	9	2	F	Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), an independent agency of the United States government was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
			C
1974	na	na	F	National Mass Transportation Assistance Act of 1974 enacted that extended the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 and 1970 to cover operating costs as well as construction costs. This act was the culmination of a major lobbying effort by the transit industry and urban interests to secure federal operating assistance for transit.
			C	Once the federal government and the US Congress stick their camel’s nose into the tent (here public transportation) they keep on expanding.
1975				Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) enacted and updated/expanded ever since. A typical one size fits all big government solution.
1978	11	6	F	Revenue Act of 1978 enacted. It established 401 (k) Accounts for the private sector. Similar accounts were also established for non-profits and government employees.
			C	Another nice example how one bad law leads to another one, because our big government representatives can not correct the root cause. Root cause is that employers were coerced to become tax collectors for the federal government in 1944. Typical big government paternalism provided through employers. Why are employees dependent on their employers for setting up such accounts? Why do employees have to wait and rollover etc. every time they change employment? Why are employees usually limited to choose only one financial service company to for investments? Stretched out vesting periods for loyal employees (what a nonsense, should not be tied to retirement savings)? Clearly, only individual retirement accounts if any should be incentivised by tax code.
1978			F	Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act
1978	na	na	F	Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 enacted. The Act covers discrimination "on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions." It only applies to employers with 15 or more employees. Employers are exempt from providing medical coverage for elective abortions - except in the case that the mother's life is threatened - but are required to provide disability and sick leave for women who are recovering from an abortion.
			C	Was that Act necessary? Our elected legislators are notorious busybodies. A pregnancy lasts only 9 months. Does this kind of law not automatically or unconsciously make employers prefer male employees over females in hiring decisions?
1984			F	Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff decision by the US Supreme Court by a 8 to 0 vote held that a state could use the eminent domain process to take land overwhelmingly concentrated in the hands of private landowners and redistribute it to the wider population of private residents.
1986	4	7	F	Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) provides some employees and beneficiaries with the right to continue their coverage under an employer-sponsored group health benefit plan for a limited time after the occurrence of certain events that would otherwise cause termination of such coverage, such as the loss of employment.
1990	7	26	F	Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 enacted Title II prohibits disability discrimination by all public entities at the local (i.e. school district, municipal, city, county) and state level. Public entities must comply with Title II regulations by the U.S. Department of Justice.
1990	11	29	F	Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 enacted as part of the Crime Control Act of 1990. “It shall be unlawful for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm that has moved in or that otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone. … Whoever violates the Act shall be fined not more than $5,000, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both. Notwithstanding any other provision of law,”
			C	What an act of hubris or wishful thinking! What are legislators smoking? Like a magician just wave the wand and criminals or mentally ill will oblige.
1993	2	5	F	Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) enacted requiring covered employers to provide employees job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. Qualified medical and family reasons include: personal or family illness, family military leave, pregnancy, adoption, or the foster care placement of a child. To qualify for the FMLA mandate, a worker must be employed by a business with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius of his or her worksite, or a public agency, including schools and state, local, and federal employers (the 50-employee threshold does not apply to public agency employees and local educational agencies). Some states have enacted their own FMLAs that have a lower threshold for employer coverage. Several states have passed FMLA-type statutes to give parents unpaid leave to attend their child’s school or educational activities. The FMLA further requires employers to provide for eligible workers:  The same group health insurance benefits, including employer contributions to premiums, that would exist if the employee were not on leave.  Restoration to the same position upon return to work. If the same position is unavailable, the employer must provide the worker with a position that is substantially equal in pay, benefits, and responsibility.  Protection of employee benefits while on leave. An employee is entitled to reinstatement of all benefits to which the employee was entitled before going on leave. Non-eligible workers and types of leave. The federal FMLA does not apply to:  workers in businesses with fewer than 50 employees (this threshold does not apply to public agency employers and local educational agencies);  part-time workers who have worked fewer than 1,250 hours within the 12 months preceding the leave and a paid vacation;  workers who need time off to care for seriously ill elderly relatives (other than parents) or pets; In 2007, the US Department of Labor estimated that of the 141.7 million workers in the United States, 94.4 million worked at FMLA-covered worksites, and 76.1 million were eligible for FMLA leave.
			C	Why do employers have to pay for that? Why is it not possible that this can be negotiated between employee and employer without big government interference? This again is a typical big government one-size-fits-all solution. This is basically preferential treatment of public sector employees. The typical threshold of 50 employers setup small business vs. larger businesses and distorts the economy. Here the notion is bigger business can pay for that. What about part time employees who hold multiple part time jobs? This is capricious!
2002				Sarbanes-Oxley Act
2005				Kelo vs. City of New London decision by the US Supreme Court by a 5 to 4 vote that the US Constitution allows the government to take property through eminent domain solely for the purpose of “economic development,”. Abuse of eminent domain for private commercial interests becomes the law of the land further eroding private property rights in the US.
2006	8	17		Pension Protection Act of 2006 enacted. Employers are allowed to automatically enroll their employees in 401(k) plans, requiring employees to actively opt out if they do not want to participate (traditionally, 401(k)s required employees to opt in). Prior to this Act, employers were held responsible for investment losses as a result of such automatic enrollments.
2009				Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 enacted amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The new act states that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action.
2010			C	Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act enacted
			F
2010	7	21	F	Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act enacted.
			C	Passed just a few months bevor the 2010 mid-term election when Democrats still had a majority in the House.
2012				The Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court single-handedly upheld the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act using a very dubious argument.
				http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States
				On June 16, 1909, President William Howard Taft, in an address to Congress, proposed a 2% federal income tax on corporations by way of an excise tax and a constitutional amendment to allow the previously enacted income tax.
				poll tax
				In 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, ruled that the minimum wage law was price fixing and that it represented an unreasonable infringement on individuals’ freedom to determine the price at which they would sell their services.
				size of the federal government. During the 1920s, there were, on average, about 553,000 paid civilian employees of the federal government. By 1939 there were 953,891 paid civilian employees, and there were 1,042,420 in 1940

Legend:

F = Facts; C = Comments

Sources:

Pardon me as I have liberally quoted extensively from Wikipedia without proper attribution.