84 



try. (Public Law 280; 41 Stat. 1063). (Amended to prohibit power 

 projects in national parks or monuments unless specifically au- 

 thorized by Congress: Public Law 369, March 3, 1921; 41 Stat. 

 1353) 



June 10, 1921: Budget and Accounting Act, 1921. Established the 

 Bureau of the Budget, provided for the annual submission of a 

 consolidated Federal budget, and established a General Account- 

 ing Office. Henceforth, all Federal agency fund requests includ- 

 ing research would have to receive central approval prior to 

 transmission to Congress. (Public Law 13; 42 Stat. 20) 



May 11, 1922: The appropriations act of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture for fiscal year 1923 authorized the creation of the Bureau of 

 Agricultural Economics out of miscellaneous already existing sta- 

 tistical and analytical activities. This has been cited as an exam- 

 ple of the type of new social-science agencies which were created 

 during the 1920's. (Public Law 217; 42 Stat. 531) 



February 26, 1923: Bureau of Home Economics established in the 

 Department of Agruculture by appropriations act for the depart- 

 ment for fiscal year 1924. (Public Law 446; 42 Stat. 1315) 



1923: Naval Research Laboratory was established. Its legislative 

 basis goes back to initial sums appropriated in 1916 for a labora- 

 tory for the Naval Consulting Board. 



February 24, 1925: The Purnell Act authorized additional funds to 

 be appropriated for each agricultural experiment station for 

 fiscal years 1926 and thereafter according to a graduated scale. 

 Funds were to be used for necessary expenses of investigations 

 relating to agricultural products including scientific researches 

 on the "establishment and maintenance of a permanent and effi- 

 cient agricultural industry." (Public Law 458; 43 Stat. 970) 



April 13, 1926: An act amending the Morrill Act of 1862 to provide 

 for investment of proceeds from public land sales, the establish- 

 ment of a perpetual fund, and use of interest from the fund to be 

 applied toward endowment for maintenance of colleges specializ- 

 ing in agriculture and mechanics, "without excluding other sci- 

 entific classical studies." (Public Law 113; 44 Stat. 247) 



May 20, 1926: Air Commerce Act, 1926. This was the first Federal 

 legislation regulating civil aeronautics. Gave the Department of 

 Commerce wide powers over aviation. Research and development 

 to improve air navigation facilities was specifically mentioned 

 among the ways in which Congress directed the Secretary of 

 Commerce to foster air commerce. He was also directed to make 

 recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture concerning nec- 

 essary meteorological service. (Public Law 254; 44 Stat. 568) 



February 23, 1927: Radio Act of 1927. Created a Federal Radio 

 Commission to be responsible for the regulation and control of 

 radio transmission within the United States and of channels of 

 interstate and foreign radio transmission. (Public Law 632; 44 

 Stat. 1162) 



March 2, 1927: Amendments to the patent laws. Provided that ex- 

 aminers in chief shall have competent legal or scientific ability. 

 Amended the appeals procedure. (Public Law 690; 44 Stat. 1335) 



March 10, 1928: Authorized $900,000 to complete transfer of experi- 

 mental and testing plant of Air Corps to a permanent site at 



