21 U.S.C. § 679 — Application of Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

The record indicates that this section originated as part of the Meat Inspection Act of March 4, 1907 (ch. 2907), though the specific text of § 409 was not part of the original 1907 enactment but was added later, on December 15, 1967, by section 16 of Public Law 90-201, 81 Stat. 600. The source credit further shows that the section has since been amended twice: by Public Law 96-88, section 509(b), on October 17, 1979, and by Public Law 111-31, division A, title I, section 103(o), on June 22, 2009. The amendment count of three reflects the addition itself together with these two subsequent revisions. Public Law 90-201, enacted in December 1967, is generally understood to be the Wholesome Meat Act, which strengthened federal meat inspection requirements and clarified relationships between federal meat inspection law and other federal regulatory schemes, including food and drug law. Provisions like this one, addressing how the meat inspection statute interacts with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, are commonly understood to reflect Congress's effort to prevent gaps or conflicts between overlapping regulatory authorities administered by different federal agencies. The 1979 and 2009 amendments likely reflect subsequent reorganizations of federal health and agriculture agency responsibilities, but the record here does not establish the specific legislative purpose behind those particular changes. Beyond this general understanding of the 1967 Act's broader aims, the record does not establish more specific reasons Congress included this particular provision.