[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5737 Introduced in House (IH)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5737

   To restore the authority of the Federal Trade Commission to issue 
         regulations on marketing and advertising to children.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 29, 2006

  Ms. Norton introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To restore the authority of the Federal Trade Commission to issue 
         regulations on marketing and advertising to children.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Children's Health Federal Trade 
Commission Authority Restoration Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) over 12 million children and adolescents, ages 2 
        through 19, are overweight, a rate that has tripled in the last 
        40 years;
            (2) overweight children have a more than 70 percent chance 
        of being overweight adults;
            (3) type 2 diabetes, a disease that is mainly associated 
        with adults, has become widespread in children in recent years;
            (4) children are obese in part because they watch too much 
        television, with each child on average watching over 2 hours 
        each day;
            (5) the congressionally chartered Institute of Medicine 
        found extraordinary growth in new food products targeted to 
        children, from just 52 new product introductions in 1994 to 
        close to 500 in 2005;
            (6) an estimated $15 billion was spent on junk food 
        marketing in 2005;
            (7) in the late 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission 
        recommended banning television advertising directed at children 
        under the age of 8 after research indicated that marketing to 
        young children was unfair because they do not understand the 
        persuasive intent of advertising, but was never granted the 
        authority to do so by Congress; and
            (8) a recent Institute of Medicine report found that the 
        Federal Trade Commission should be granted the authority to 
        regulate advertising directed at children.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to restore the authority 
of the Federal Trade Commission to issue regulations that restrict the 
marketing or advertising of foods and beverages to children under the 
age of 18 years if the Federal Trade Commission determines that there 
is evidence that consumption of certain foods and beverages is 
detrimental to the health of children.

SEC. 3. AUTHORITY TO REGULATE MARKETING AND ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN.

    Section 18 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a) is 
amended by striking subsection (h).
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