COVINGTON 5. BURLING 
Gilbert S. Omenn, Ph.D., M.D. 
January 6, 1978 
Page Two 
intent. It appears from the wording of the statute itself, 
however, that the Department of Treasury was given very 
broad and all-encompassing authority to prevent the spread 
of disease. 
II 
In 1944 Congress consolidated and revised all of 
the laws relating to the public health service in the 
Publish Health Service Act (58 Stat. 682) . (A copy of rele- 
vant portions of the House Report on that bill, as repro- 
duced in 1944 U.S. Code and Congressional Service 1211, is 
enclosed. Section 361, which was later codified in the 
United States Code as 42 U.S.C. 264, is discussed on pages 
1214 and 1234-1235.) 
As you know. Section 361, as enacted in 1944, pro- 
vides broadly that: 
" (a) The Surgeon General, with the 
approval of the Secretary, is authorized 
to make and enforce such regulations as 
in his judgment are necessary to prevent 
the introduction, transmission, or spread 
of communicable diseases from foreign 
countries into the States or possessions, 
or from one State or possession into any 
other State or possession. For purposes 
of carrying out and enforcing such regula- 
tions, the Surgeon General may provide for 
such inspection, fumigation, disinfection, 
sanitation, pestic stermination, destruc- 
tion of animals or articles found to be so 
infected or contaminated as to be sources 
of dangerous infection to human beings, 
and other measures, as in his judgment may 
be necessary." 
In addition, Section 368 (a) provides that "Any person who 
violates any regulation prescribed under sections 361 . . . 
shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by 
imprisonment for not more than one year, or both." 
The wording of Section 361 is uniquely broad. By 
its terms, this provision authorizes HEW to promulgate any 
regulations necessary to prevent communicable disease, and 
[Appendix A — 258] 
