1975 to 2000
Investigations and deregulation
The Church Committee, the secret surveillance court, Iran-Contra and its pardons, Waco, and the repeal of Glass-Steagall.
Key facts
- The Church Committee found 500,000 FBI files on Americans. Congress was asked for a law against assassination and did not pass one.
- In 1978 Congress created a secret court for surveillance warrants. It hears only the government.
- Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999. In 2000 swaps were exempted from regulation.
Timeline
7 events in Health, Food & Regulators, oldest first
- 19841984Health, Food & Regulators
Dioxin act: one disease recognized from Agent Orange, chloracne
The CDC study abandoned in 1987 without a finding.
- 1985August 1953 to February 1987Health, Food & Regulators
Camp Lejeune wells shut, five years after the solvents were found
TCE at 280 times today's limit.
- 1990October 1990Health, Food & Regulators
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
Allowed to expire June 2024; restored July 2025.
- 1991February 1991Health, Food & Regulators
Agent Orange Act: presumption of service connection
Twenty years after the last flight.
- 1995October 3, 1995Health, Food & Regulators
Radiation experiments committee: nearly 4,000 experiments, secrecy to avoid liability
Apology and compensation recommended.
- December 1995Health, Food & Regulators
FDA approves OxyContin with an abuse claim it had no data for
The sentence the sales campaign was built on.
- 1997October 1997Health, Food & Regulators
National Cancer Institute publishes the fallout study, six years late
11,300 to 212,000 thyroid cancers.
Stories (2)
- 1962 to 2022Agent Orange in Vietnam: 19 Million Gallons Sprayed and Fifty Years of Delayed VA BenefitsBetween 1962 and 1971 the Air Force sprayed about 19 million gallons of herbicide over Vietnam, 11 million of it Agent Orange. For twenty years afterward the Department of Veterans Affairs recognized one disease, a skin condition, as connected to it, and the government's own study of the exposure was abandoned in 1987 without a finding. Congress forced a presumption of service connection in 1991. The list of diseases the government now presumes Agent Orange caused runs to nineteen, including eight cancers, and the sailors who served on ships off the coast were not covered until 2019. Veterans who served in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Guam were added in 2022.Health, Food & Regulators
- 1951 to 2026Nevada Nuclear Testing Downwinders: Fallout Across 48 States and 49,000 Projected Thyroid CancersBetween 1951 and 1962 the government set off nearly 100 nuclear bombs in the open air in Nevada. The fallout reached every state. Congress ordered a study of the thyroid doses in 1983; the National Cancer Institute finished most of the work by 1991 and published it in 1997, after a newspaper asked why it was still secret. Its estimate is that the tests will cause between 11,300 and 212,000 thyroid cancers, most likely about 49,000. Congress apologized and created a compensation fund in 1990, let it expire in 2024, and restored and expanded it in July 2025. As of September 1, 2026 the Justice Department had approved 52,518 claims and paid $3.43 billion, and had 42,438 new claims waiting.Health, Food & Regulators