1959: Creation of a Single Department of Consumer Protection in Connecticut
By the late 1950s, various consumer protections had been assigned to numerous state agencies and commissions over the years, and there arose an interest and frankly, a fiscal need to combine these scattered provisions under one single authority. Several bills to that effect were considered during Connecticut’s 1959 General Assembly Session.
Finally, on May 20, 1959, the House clerk called out Calendar 1132, File 728, Substitute for Senate Bill 794, and "An act concerning the transfer of certain inspection powers and duties in the Department of Agriculture, the Commission of Food and Drugs and the State Athletic Commission and Budgetary and Fiscal Matters in the Pharmacy Commission to a new Department of Consumer Protection" was discussed at length.
Substitute Senate Bill 794 bill passed that day in May, and the little State of Connecticut had created the first independent and broadest-based Department of Consumer Protection in the country. The original statutory citation was Sec. 19-170a, which transferred to Sec. 21a-1 in 1983.