Behre, Doris E., Greenbelt Consumer Services, Inc___. Prepared statement_. Nelson, Helen E., associate director, Center for Consumer Affairs, Uni- versity of Wisconsin; vice president. Illinois Federation of Consumers; Richardson, Dr. Lee, president, Louisiana Consumers League, and pro- fessor of Management and Marketing, Louisiana State University- Shields, Dr. Currin, president, Arizona Consumers Council, and professor of government, University of Arizona_. Willier, Dr. William F., on behalf of the National Consumer Law Center Davis, Kenneth N., Jr., assistant secretary for domestic and international Edwards, Hon. Charles C., Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; accompanied by Wil- liam W. Goodrich, Assistant to the Director, Division of Case Guidance, Knauer, Virginia H., Special Assistant to the President for Consumer ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS, LETTERS, AND ARTICLES Margulies, Walter P., Cosmetics Packaging Comes on Strong with "Now" 23 FAIR PACKAGING AND LABELING FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1970 U.S. SENATE, CONSUMER SUBCOMMITTEE, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m. in the congressional Senate room, Statler-Hilton Hotel, Hon. Philip A. Hart (vice chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senator Hart. OPENING STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN Senator HART. The committee will be in order. In this attractive and yet unlikely setting we are opening the hearing of the Subcommittee for Consumers of the Senate Commerce Committee. Before going further, let me express the appreciation of the Committee to Consumers Assembly for permitting this kind of discussion to develop in a setting such as this. May I introduce for the record, on my right, the Chief Counsel of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Mike Pertschuk, and on my left, the Staff Counsel of the Committee on Commerce, Mr. Lynn Sutcliffe. Today the subcommittee will continue its review of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, an act designed to bring essential information to the American consumers and thereby promote the free market system. I do have a brief opening statement I would like to make before hearing our first of several witnesses. I would like to comment upon how fair packaging and labeling relates to the inflation, the acute inflation now eating away at consumer and businessman alike. To illustrate the way in which the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act can lessen inflation I would like to show, with patience and tolerance, a film clip of an anti-inflation advertisement which the Advertising Council has been showing on television. May I ask that the clip be run at this point? (Movie.) Senator HART. First let me, for the committee, thank the Advertising Council for its cooperation in providing that clip. Let me concentrate on that part of the clip which asks the lady: "And you ma'am, do you buy items impulsively without shopping for the best bargin?" You heard the lady say "yes." Staff member assigned to the hearing: S. Lynn Sutcliffe. I think the assumption of the Advertising Council is that the woman is responsible for adding to the problem of inflation. Now I agree, as we all must, that impulse buying adds to inflation. But really, was the woman in the clip responsible? Was she really being piggy or was she a victim of a set of circumstances over which we have yet to gain control? Recent studies indicate that American consumers have a very tough time comparing prices in local supermarkets. Impulse buying is a product of necessity or frustration rather than design. Because of the myriad calculations necessary to figure out the best buy, it's a rare consumer who has the time, even assuming the ability, to make value comparisons. The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act has provisions for facilitating value comparisons and such facilitation is a stated objective of the legislation. Because of the connection between shopping for the best buy and cooling inflation, this Subcommittee for Consumers will review with particular interest the way in which the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act has been able to facilitate value comparisons. Now, no act can work unless those persons administering it pursue their responsibilities vigorously. Such vigorous pursuit involves money. Prayer and good faith are great, but money is essential. The Committee was delighted to see the Senate just before Christmas appropriate $691,000 for Fair Packaging and Labeling activities in the Food and Drug Administration, even though the Administration had requested zero money. In conference with the House, that $691,000 was trimmed back to $341,000, still an improvement over the Administration's non-request. Unfortunately, those funds now are involved in the bill which faces Presidential veto. I do hope that the Executive recognizes the antiinflationary thrust of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, because along with others in this country, great concern has been voiced by the President about the necessity that we get a handhold on inflation and that he might refrain from vetoing the Health, Education and Welfare Bill which contains this appropriation. We are on the threshhold of the '70's and it's appropriate that this Committee look back at the consumer legislation of the '60's and find out how it is working. Because the Packaging and Labeling Act is the first of the bills to protect the consumers economic interest, it was pushed and pulled and hauled and hammered fiercely before its final passage. Some of its provisions may even now need changing. Certainly some of its provisions now need implementing. It's time for Congress and the Administration, American business and consumers to take a look and see if that Fair Packaging and Labeling Act needs reinforcement or restructuring. To help the Subcommittee make that record on which such a judgment can be based, we are fortunate to have the experienced witnesses that we shall now bear. We open with Mrs. Helen E. Nelson as our first witness, Vice President of CFA and Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Consumers, now in Chicago, but I hate to recall the fact that when we first had the benefit of Mrs. Nelson's testimony it was another subcommittee, the Subcommittee on Anti-Trust and Monopoly, and it was another year. It was the beginning of the '60's when we first opened hearings in an effort to develop a Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. If Mrs. Nelson would come forward, I want to express the regret of the Chairman of this Consumer Subcommittee, Senator Moss of Utah, that he is simply not able to be with us today though he had anticipated that pleasure. Mrs. Nelson, on behalf of Senator Moss and others of the Committee I welcome you. You are free to expand on the statement you developed. If at any point you would care to summarize it, the statement will be printed in full in the record as though given in full. STATEMENT OF MRS. HELEN E. NELSON, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN; VICE PRESIDENT, ILLINOIS FEDERATION OF CONSUMERS; AND VICE PRESIDENT, THE CONSUMERS FEDERATION OF AMERICA Mrs. NELSON. Thank you. We do have some specific recommendations to make. But first and most important, The Consumers Federation of America wants to thank you, Senator Hart, for your efforts to help the consumer solve these problems we have with packaging. It has been, as you suggest, and I have to admit it, about ten years since you started to seek ways to preserve what consumers have always had. That is the right to compare quality and price and to make it possible to lead into our economy the technological benefits of packaging while we still preserved these rights of the consumer to compare quality and price. The Federation agrees very much with your statement at the time of the law's passage in 1966 that eventually the Fair Labeling and Packaging Act will have the same significance regarding Federal responsibility for assisting consumers as the Employment Act of 1946 has had regarding Federal responsibility for economic planning. We think it is a landmark piece of legislation. We know, too, if the Senate version had become final law we wouldn't have as long a list of recommendations as we have today. We know, too, we consumers have to take some responsibility for the fact that the law was weakened so badly as it moved through the Congress. We were not well enough organized. We were not sufficiently sophisticated to provide the sustained support and the expertise in the last stages of its passage. It suffered some very serious weakening as a result. But time has gone by. We are stronger. We are better organized. We are here less to complain or to fix any blame than to get on with making this the kind of law that you so wisely said it was going to be. The policy statement, I think, is something that we need to have in mind as we review the effectiveness of this law. The policy statement that prefaces the law makes this commitment on behalf of the U.S. government: "Informed consumers are essential to the fair and efficient functioning of a free market economy. Packages and their labels should enable consumers to obtain accurate information as to the quantity of |