Name ___________________________________
Date ____________________________
Cohort ____________________________
Important New Deal Agencies
Directions: Go on a gallery walk around the room and read about each of the New Deal Agencies listed below.
Remember that FDR focused on his 3 R’s: Relief (direct help for the unemployed and poor), Reform (changes so such a
crisis would not happen again), and Recovery (bringing the economy back up to normal levels). Fill in the information for
each agency then complete the assignment on the back.
Initials
CCC
SEC
AAA
WPA
TVA
SSA
FDIC
HOLC
NYA
CWA
FHA
PWA
Full Name
Purpose and Information
Relief, Reform,
or Recovery
Directions: After completing the chart of the New Deal Agencies on the opposite side, create your own illustration that
either SUPPORTS or CRITICIZES one of the agencies from your chart. Use the rest of the space below to create this; I
should be able to easily identify your choice and stance on the agency.
Securities and Exchange
Commission
The Securities Act of 1933 required public corporations to register their
stock sales and distribution and make regular financial disclosures. The
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 created the SEC to regulate exchanges,
brokers, and over-the-counter markets, as well as to monitor the required
financial disclosures. The SEC was authorized to break up any
unnecessarily large utility combinations into smaller, geographically based
companies and to set up federal commissions to regulate utility rates and
financial practices.
Works Progress Administration
In April 1935, the WPA was established under the Emergency Relief
Appropriation Act, as a means of creating government jobs for some of
the nation's many unemployed. It employed more than 8.5 million persons
on 1.4 million public projects before it was disbanded in 1943. The
program chose work that would not interfere with private enterprise,
especially vast public building projects like the construction of highways,
bridges, and dams. However, the WPA also provided federal funding for
students, who were given work under the National Youth Administration.
Civilian Conservation Corps
Formed in March 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps, CCC, was one of the first
New Deal programs. It was a public works project intended to promote
environmental conservation and to build good citizens through vigorous, disciplined
outdoor labor and was operated under the army’s control. Camp commanders had
disciplinary powers and corpsmen were required to address superiors as “sir.” By
September 1935 over 500,000 young men had lived in CCC camps, most staying
from six months to a year. The work focused on soil conservation and reforestation.
Most important, the men planted millions of trees on land made barren from fires,
natural erosion, or lumbering—in fact, the CCC was responsible for over half the
reforestation, public and private, done in the nation’s history. Corpsmen also dug
canals and ditches, built over thirty thousand wildlife shelters, stocked rivers and
lakes with nearly a billion fish, restored historic battlefields, and cleared beaches
and campgrounds.
Agricultural Adjustment
Administration
One of the first programs of the New Deal to be introduced and enacted was the
Agricultural Adjustment Act. The intent of the AAA was to restore the purchasing
power of American farmers to pre-World War I levels. The money to pay the
farmers for cutting back production by about 30 percent was raised by a tax on
companies that bought farm products and processed them into food and clothing.
The AAA evened the balance of supply and demand for farm commodities so that
prices would support a decent purchasing power for farmers. This concept was
known as "parity." AAA controlled the supply of seven "basic crops" — corn,
wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco, and milk — by offering payments to farmers
in return for farmers not planting those crops. The AAA also became involved in
assisting farmers ruined by the advent of the Dust Bowl in 1934.
Tennessee Valley Authority
On May 18, 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley
Authority Act, as part of the flurry of legislation that marked Roosevelt`s
first 100 days in office. The TVA pledged to improve navigability on the
Tennessee River, as well as provide flood control, reforest and improve
marginal farm land, assist in industrial and agricultural development, and
assist in the creation of a government nitrate and phosphorus
manufacturing facility. The TVA was one of the most ambitious projects
of the New Deal in its overall conception. The TVA encountered many
setbacks and failures and was involved in many controversies, but it
brought electricity to thousands of people at an affordable price. It
controlled the flood waters of the Tennessee River and improved
navigation, as well as introduced modern agriculture techniques.
Social Security Administration
Signed on August 14, 1935, President Roosevelt became the first president
to advocate federal assistance for the elderly. The Act provided benefits to
retirees and the unemployed, and a lump-sum benefit at death. Payments
to current retirees are financed by a payroll tax on current workers' wages,
half directly as a payroll tax and half paid by the employer. The act also
gave money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals, for
unemployment insurance, aid to families with dependent children,
maternal and child welfare, public health services, and the blind.
Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation
This independent U.S. government corporation created under authority of the
Banking Act of 1933, with the responsibility to insure bank deposits in eligible
banks against loss in the event of a bank failure and to regulate certain banking
practices. It was established after the collapse of many American banks during the
initial years of the Great Depression. Although earlier state-sponsored plans to
insure depositors had not succeeded, the FDIC became a permanent government
agency through the Banking Act of 1935. The FDIC’s income is derived from
assessments on insured banks and from investments. Insured banks are assessed on
the basis of their average deposits. The corporation is authorized to insure bank
deposits in eligible banks up to a specified maximum amount that has been adjusted
through the years having begun in 1934 with deposit insurance of $5,000 per
account. From 1933, all members of the Federal Reserve System were required to
insure their deposits, while nonmember banks—about half the United States total—
were allowed to do so if they met FDIC standards.
Home Owners Loan
Corporations
This New Deal agency was established in 1933 by the Home Owners'
Loan Corporation Act under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its purpose
was to refinance home mortgages currently in default to prevent
foreclosure. This was accomplished by selling bonds to lenders in
exchange for the home mortgages. It was used to extend loans from
shorter loans to fully amortized, longer term loans (typically 20-25 years).
Through its work it granted long term mortgages to over a million people
facing the loss of their homes. The HOLC stopped lending circa 1935,
once all the available capital had been spent. HOLC was only applicable
to nonfarm homes, worth less than $20,000. HOLC also assisted mortgage
lenders by refinancing problematic loans and increasing the institutions
liquidity.
National Youth Administration
As a New Deal organization the National Youth Administration (NYA) was
established within the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on June 26, 1935,
and funded by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. NYA provided
work training based on U.S. citizenship and financial need for youth between ages
sixteen and twenty-five. In addition to offering courses in writing, reading, and
arithmetic, NYA operated two programs: the Works Project Program to train
unemployed, out-of-school youth, and the Student Aid Program to provide workstudy training for high school, college, and graduate students. Congress distributed
federal money each academic year to state educational institutions for scholarships
and grants. The projects gave rise to learning skills in road and building
construction, woodworking, office work, nursing, furniture and auto repair, radio
operation, landscaping, blacksmithing, welding, agriculture, and domestic science.
The national WPA regulated work hours at eight hours a day, forty hours a week,
and seventy hours a month. Earnings ranged from ten to twenty-five dollars per
month, which often went to the worker's family. NYA offered self-improvement,
health benefits, citizenship courses, and vocational guidance. It also provided social
opportunities through community youth centers featuring athletics, hobby clubs,
dramatics, games, music, and dancing.
Civil Works Administration
Created on November 9, 1933, the CWA was to hire workers to assist in the
creation of public projects. This program hired both men and women. The State
Relief Commission directed the CWA's efforts in Ohio. The CWA's projects
focused on the repair or construction of public buildings, roadways, and parks. The
CWA began more than six thousand projects in Ohio alone. By January 1934, the
Civil Works Administration had provided employment to more than four million
Americans, including over 200,000 Ohioans. During its existence, the CWA paid
approximately forty-nine thousand dollars in wages to Ohioans, helping them to
meet their needs during the Great Depression. Unskilled workers received fifty
cents per hour, while skilled workers were paid $1.20 per hour. The Civil Works
Administration remained in operation until March 1934, when the federal
government terminated the program due to its tremendous costs.
Federal Housing Administration
The FHA is a government agency, established by the National Housing Act of
1934, to regulate interest rates and mortgage terms after the banking crisis of the
1930s. Through the newly created FHA, the federal government began to insure
mortgages issued by qualified lenders, providing mortgage lenders protection from
default. If a borrower failed to make their payments, the FHA was required to cover
the unpaid balance. The government-insured mortgages provided stability to the
housing market and increased the availability of funding for home building and
purchasing. The FHA adjusted several aspects of the housing finance system, such
as increasing the maximum allowable mortgage, which made ownership widely
available to many Americans. In order to obtain a mortgage, however, the FHA
required that the mortgage, property, and borrower meet certain requirements, some
of which led to the perpetuation of racial discrimination and urban disinvestment.
Public Works Administration
Created by the National Industrial Recovery Act on June 16, 1933, the PWA
budgeted several billion dollars to be spent on the construction of public works as a
means of providing employment, stabilizing purchasing power, improving public
welfare, and contributing to a revival of American industry. Simply put, it was
designed to spend "big bucks on big projects." Between July 1933 and March 1939,
the PWA funded the construction of more than 34,000 projects, including airports,
electricity-generating dams, and aircraft carriers; and seventy percent of the new
schools and one third of the hospitals built during that time. It also electrified the
Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Washington, D.C. Its one big failure
was in quality, affordable housing, building only 25,000 units in four and one half
years. The PWA spent over $6 billion, but did not succeed in returning the level of
industrial activity to pre-depression levels. Nor did it significantly reduce the
unemployment level or help jump-start a widespread creation of small businesses.
Nonetheless, the historical legacy of the PWA is perhaps as important as its
practical accomplishments at the time. It provided the federal government with its
first systematic network for the distribution of funds to localities, ensured that
conservation would remain an element in the national discussion, and provided
federal administrators with a broad amount of badly needed experience in public
policy planning.