Fdr Timeline

March 4th 1933 FDR Inauguration
March 6th Bank Holiday
March 9th Emergency Session of Congress. Passage of Emergency Banking Act.
March 10th Economy Act sent to Congress
March 12th First Fireside Chat
March 13th Banks begin to reopen
March 16th Farm Bill sent to congress to remedy lack of purchasing power of farmers. This includes the measures against over-production which by October result in 6 million pigs being slaughtered and the meat thrown out as waste, and cotton crops plowed under.
March 20th Economy Act Passed into Law. This Act cut Veterans benefits by 50%. Veterans benefits made up 25% of the budget. The whole budget was $3.6 billion. Therefore, pre cuts, the benefits were $900 million, afterwards $450 million.
March 21st Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) bill sent to Congress.
March 22nd Beer-wine revenue bill sent to Congress.
March 27th Farm Credit Administration created by Executive Order merger of 9 separate agencies. Farm Mortgage Relief Act proposed. Half of farmers threatened with foreclosure. Banks foreclosing on farm mortgages at rate of 20,000 per year by February 1933.
March 31st CCC passed into law. Initially designed to create 250,000 jobs among unemployed young adults. Created more than 2 million by the end of the program in 1942. The CCC was empowered to employ these youth for flood control, reforestation, suppression of tree disease, clearing fire breaks, building fire observation towers, creating parks, protecting endangered species (Whooping Crane). Over the life of the program 4 million trees were thinned, one billion fish stocked and 30,000 wildlife shelters built.
April 3rd Farm Mortgage Relief proposal was sent to Congress and attached to the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
April 5th Farm Mortgage Relief reported out of committee and passed into law.
April 7th Beer sales were legal for the first time since Prohibition began in 1920. Tax revenues flow into government.
April 10th Congress sent legislative proposal for Tennessee Valley Authority.
April 18th US$ slumps. Treasury refuses to license more gold exports. Evening White House meeting: FDR, Moley, Bullitt, Warburg, Feis, Senator Pittman. Decision to leave gold standard announced. Credit creation features of Agricultural Adjustment Act, Thomas Amendment, accepted.
April 19th FDR takes the US$ off the gold standard. Press conference, later in the day, FDR announces intent to get the world as a whole back on the gold standard.
May 7th Second Fireside Chat. Reviews progress after 60 days.
May 12th Federal Emergency Relief Act creates FERA, with $500 million, ½ directed to the states, ½ available as matching funds for state programs in the ratio of 1:3. Harry Hopkins in charge. Intended to relieve unemployment.
Agricultural Adjustment Act and Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, to reduce $200 million worth of surplus production, through plough unders, acreage set asides and livestock and poultry slaughters.
During this April to May period Congress, through such members as Hugo Black, and LaFollette in the Senate, initiated legislation for a 30-hour work week, intended to create 6 million jobs for the 14 million unemployed, and for $6 billion funding for relief projects. FDR thought Black’s 30-hr week would result in pay cuts all round and opposed it as unconstitutional restraint of trade etc. He opposed LaFollette’s $6 billion on grounds of fiscal orthodoxy, too much money.
May 18th Passage of TVA: 650 mile navigable water way to be built from Knoxville TN to Paducah KY, with construction of dams, power plants, fertilizer production, intended for direct economic benefit on 7 state area affected, and much wider effects. The TVA was a challenge to Commonwealth and Southern, the utility which, under the leadership of Wendell Wilkie, was picking up the surviving pieces of the collapsed empire of Samuel Insull.
May 27th Federal Securities Act passed, established the Securities and Exchange Commission headed by “to catch a thief” Joseph Kennedy. Intended to “restore some old fashioned standards of rectitude” as FDR put it in his signing statement.
June 5th Senate and House by Joint Resolution abrogate the gold clause in private and public contracts, and back paper currency as legal tender.
June 6th National Employment Service created. Intended to help coordinate job searches between Federal and state governments.
June 13th Homeowners’ Loan Corporation enacted, empowered to refinance mortgages, make loans, and advance cash for tax payments and repairs.
June 16th
1) Banking Act of 1933, aka “Glass-Steagall” Act passed into law. This legislation created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and protected bank deposits up to $5,000, separated commercial from investment banking, forced banks to get out of the business of financial investment, banned the use of bank deposits in speculation.
2) Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, attempted to smooth out operating duplications and inefficiencies in then existing railroad network.
3) National Industrial Recovery Act, including Title 2 creating the Public Works Administration. This act was said to be FDR’s response to Hugo Black’s 30-hr work week proposal. The NIRA was established in 3 parts. Title I suspended the provisions of anti-trust legislation on price fixing, and a enacted a tremendous boost to industrial trade unions by promoting collective bargaining.
Title II allocated $3.3 billion for public works, to build and repair Federal buildings, roads, bridges, and dams. It gave employment to around 2 million. Buried here, in an indication of things to come, was money for the US Navy to build 2 heavy cruisers.
Title III was made up of Congressional wish-lists, proposals to end the depression, and other means employed to widen the political support the measure might enjoy.
FDR thought that between the CCC, the TVA and the WPA 4.5 million, or roughly 30% of the 14 million unemployed, might be put to work.
4) Farm Credit Act. Legislation which brought to completion the process launched with the Executive Order forming the Farm Credit Administration. This provided easier refinancing of farm mortgages, and brought foreclosures to a halt.