In October 1919 Congress passed the National Prohibition Enforcement Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. The act became known as the Volstead Act, for its author, Representative Andrew Volstead of Minnesota. The Volstead Act provided the enforcement authority for the Eighteenth Amendment, which made illegal the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors after January 16, 1920. The Volstead Act defined intoxicating liquor as any beverage containing more than half of 1 percent of alcohol. The legislation also established the post of commissioner of prohibition in the Bureau of the Internal Revenue Service. The Volstead Act was not widely enforced. In 1933 the Beer-Wine Revenue Act amended the Volstead Act and legalized the sale of wine and beer. In December 1933 the Twenty-first Amendment provided for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, making the Volstead Act null and void.
