Jimmy Carter photo

Remarks on Signing Into Law the Infant Formula Act of 1980

September 26, 1980

This signing ceremony for the infant formula bill is particularly gratifying to me as President for several reasons. One is it shows the influence that just one or two private citizens can have if they feel very deeply about an important subject. Lynn Pilot and Carol Laskin were concerned about the fact that in the past some of the infant formulas sold in this country to trusting parents for their dear children, babies, were lacking in certain food ingredients and caused very severe damage to the children's or babies' health.

A reporter, Lea Thompson, became interested in this subject and let the public become aware of it, and then later, of course, Senator Metzenbaum, Congress. man Gore, Congressmen Mottl and Tim Lee Carter, who happens to be a doctor himself, Congressman Waxman, and then, of course, Senators Baucus and Leahy and others became interested in this problem. As a result of that, we've now had a bill passed that would set very rigid standards for the quality and the adequacy of infant formulas and, secondly, would let the Department of Health and Human Services monitor very carefully this quality, to raise its standards or modify them as research results indicated, and provide for a testing program for the health of the children and also the adequacy of formulas in the future.

As you may or may not know, the Department of Agriculture now also has centers wherein the nutritional value of foods sold and the needs for food products by children and older people, retired people can be tested.

I'm very grateful that this fine work has been done, appreciate the dedication of these parents, the news media, and the Members of the House and Senate on a bipartisan basis, and am very gratified as President to sign into law now the infant formula bill, which will guarantee to the children of our Nation in the future that they can be healthy, that they can indicate their strength and their health even in the presence of the press and the President. [Laughter] This is the way a free society ought to be, and I'm very grateful for it.

[At this point, the President signed the bill into law.]

It makes me feel at home. It also reminds me of my own grandchildren, who are dear to me.

I'd like to ask Senator Metzenbaum if he'd like to make a comment, representing the Members of the Senate who worked on this bill, and then I'd like to ask Congressman Gore if he would make a statement, representing the House of Representatives.

Note: The President spoke at 1:30 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House. Following the bill signing, there were remarks by Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum, Representative Albert Gore, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services Patricia Roberts Harris, Lea Thompson of NBC News, and Representative Tim Lee Carter. The President also had a conversation with mothers attending the ceremony with their children. Their remarks are included in the White House press release.

As enacted, H.R. 6940 is Public Law 96-359, approved September 26.

Jimmy Carter, Remarks on Signing Into Law the Infant Formula Act of 1980 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/251754

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