One of the first pieces of legislation that was passed when Franklin Roosevelt became President, was the Economy Act. It was passed on March 15, 1933 and not long after, the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was passed on June 16, 1933.

Much of the New Deal legislation created actual government programs and federal agencies — some of which are still very much a part of modern America. One of the most well-known is the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) which has its genesis with the crash of the stock market in 1929. The crash led to Congress to passing the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC "was designed to restore investor confidence in our capital markets by providing investors and the markets with more reliable information and clear rules of honest dealing."¹

1933 also saw the passage of two pieces of banking related laws that were in response to the thousands of bank failures that occurred in the 1920s and early 1930s. One was the the legislation that created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the other was the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 External.

Other agencies and programs that were created included:

• The Social Security Administration was created by the 1935 Social Security Act.
• The Federal National Mortgage Association more commonly known as Fannie Mae External was chartered in February 1938.
• The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) was created in 1934 with the passage of the National Housing Act of 1934 with the intent to regulate the rate of interest and the terms of mortgages that it insured. It became a part of the Housing & Urban Development Administration in 1965.
• Both the Civilian Conservation Corps External which put many men and young adults into jobs in the 1930s and 1940s, and the National Labor Relations Board which began with the passing of the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) became part of the Department of Labor.²

Notes

1. Creation of the SEC, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission web site. Back to text
2. History at the Department of Labor—Departmental Timeline External, U.S. Department of Labor web site. Back to text