How Did FERA Use Executive Order To Create A National Welfare System?

When FDR became president in 1933, 42 percent of Americans were considered low-income, and unemployment was at an all time high of 25 percent (Kennedy, 2009; Moran, 2011). Desperate conditions and a more liberal administration allowed the federal government to increase its share of relief spending from 2 percent in 1933 to 79 percent in 1934 (Fishback, Haines, & Kantor, 2007). This increase in spending was made possible by the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA), proposed and signed by FDR soon after he assumed office in 1933 (Hansson, 2011). FERA acted as a follow up solution in helping states with their aforementioned struggle of high demand and low resources concerning public relief (Hansson, 2011). With the need to radically change and develop a national welfare system, FDR used executive order to create the Committee on Economic Security (CES); this committee of presidentially delegated Cabinet officers was put in charge of developing what is now known as Social Security (Hansson, 2011).
It eventually received bi-partisan support and votes and was signed into law by FDR on August 14, 1935 (Historical Background and Development, n.d.). The Social Security Act established state administered Unemployment Insurance, the Old Age and Survivors Insurance Program, and “a system of state-federal public assistance programs for aged, blind, and dependent children deemed unable to earn wages and therefore participate in the social insurance programs” (Hanson, 2011). The Social Security Act of 1935 set the foundation for other federal welfare programs to come (Kennedy, 2009). Conservative critics believe this act did too much, creating dependency in low-income Americans, while more liberal critics believe this act should have done more to re-distribute income (Hanson,