Hepburn Act

…he helped to pass the Hepburn Act (1906), a railway rate-regulation bill, on behalf of President Theodore Roosevelt. Although identified with the silver-purchase act, which he cosponsored, he was more important as a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and as chairman of the Senate Committee on…

The Hepburn Act of 1906 conveyed those powers and created the federal government’s first true regulatory agency. Also in 1906, Roosevelt pressed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection acts, which created agencies to assure protection to consumers. The “muckrakers,” investigative journalists…

The outcome—the Hepburn Act of 1906—was his own personal triumph; it greatly enlarged the ICC’s jurisdiction and forbade railroads to increase rates without its approval. By using the same tactics of aggressive leadership, Roosevelt in 1906 also obtained passage of a Meat Inspection Act and a Pure…

…in securing passage of the Hepburn Act (1906), extending the Interstate Commerce Commission’s regulatory powers over the railroads. Tillman was floor leader for the bill. He generally supported Pres. Woodrow Wilson and, as chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, promoted the administration’s program to strengthen the U.S. Navy. His…