It became the National Communicable Disease Center (NCDC) effective July 1, 1967. The organization was renamed the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 24, 1970, and Centers for Disease Control effective October 14, 1980. An act of the United States Congress appended the words and Prevention to the name effective October 27, 1992. However, Congress directed that the initialism CDC be retained because of its name recognition.