Student Name:

Programs of the New Deal

You’ve learned about 12 federal programs and new laws that were part of the New Deal’s
attempt to end the Depression. Fill in the gaps in this table to review each programs, what it set
out to do, and how successful it was.

For example, in the first row, the program or law listed in the column on the left is “The 1933
Emergency Banking Relief Act,” and the middle column describes what this law tried to do.
Since the column on the right is blank, fill in that column with a description of the law’s success,
failure—or mixed results.

Program or Law What did it try to do? Was it successful?

The 1933 Stop bank failures by reforming
Emergency Banking the banking system. The Federal
Relief Act Reserve would supervise banks
and back them with federal
money. If a bank started to run
out of money, rather than let it
fail, the Federal Reserve would
loan it more money until it re-
stabilized.

This made the federal guaranty Yes! It became a permanent feature

of bank customers’ deposits of American banking—the next time
permanent. you go to a bank, look around and
you will see a sign like this one
posted somewhere in it that says
that the money you deposit is
guaranteed by the FDIC. That means
that if the bank you use suddenly
went out of business, the federal
government will pay you the money
that was in your bank account, up to
$250,000—more than enough to
cover most bank accounts.
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Programs of the New Deal

The Securities Act Yes! It kept companies from issuing

of 1933 more stock that they could back up
with money on hand. This limited
stock speculation and brought the
paper value of the stock exchange
more in line with the real values of
the companies trading stocks on it.

The Glass-Steagall This made it illegal for Yes! Banks no longer had financial
Act (1933) commercial banks (banks that relationships or partnerships with
individuals had savings and stock brokers who convinced banks
checking accounts in) to to pour money into worthless stocks
speculate in stocks. on the advice of stock brokers who
were engaged in speculation.

This organization oversaw the

enforcement of the Securities Act
of 1933. Creating it meant that
the requirements in the
Securities Act were meant to be
permanent.

Unskilled people and the Yes! It provided desperately needed

unemployed from a wide range jobs, services, and paychecks to the
of fields (construction, medicine, public, and also jumpstarted some
and the arts) were given short- long-term hiring. The services
term jobs. They were paid by the provided, from vaccinations to
federal government. This was concerts, also boosted the public
supposed to get money morale.
circulating again and jumpstart
hiring in long-term industries as
well.

The Agricultural Mixed: it was successful in stopping

Adjustment over-supply of crops and livestock,
Administration and in creating a permanent federal
[AAA] (1933) role in agricultural planning and
farm subsidies. But it was shut
down as unconstitutional (price-
fixing) after just three years.
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Programs of the New Deal

The Resettlement The RA was created to relocate

Administration [RA] poor families from isolated
(1935) shacks and villages to planned
communities with electricity and
running water. The idea was that
ending rural poverty could be
jump-started by breaking
people’s ties to poor places and
letting them live in places they
could never afford to travel to or
afford a home in on their own.

The Rural Yes! Over the decades, rural

Electrification America became fully electrified,
Administration and the REA itself existed until 1994
[REA] (1935) when its functions were taken over
by the Rural Utilities Service. Quality
of life for rural Americans was
significantly improved by the REA.

The Tennessee The TVA was established to build

Valley Authority dames in the Tennessee River
[TVA] (1933) Valley region to stop river
flooding and generate electricity
for the REA to sell.

The Social Security Yes! Some politicians worried that it

Act of 1935 was socialism, but most Americans
were happy to have some kind of
guaranty that if they lost their job
they would not be out on the
streets because they had no money.
They were happy to pay a small
amount into Social Security to have
the assurance of financial help when
they were retired, or if they were
unemployed or injured. Today,
Americans still rely on receiving
Social Security payments when they
retire, and unemployment checks
when they are out of work.
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Programs of the New Deal

This guaranteed workers’ rights Yes! Union membership grew and

to form unions where they won important battles for fair
worked, join a union, engage in wages, working hours, and working
collective bargaining, and go on conditions. The National Labor
strike. It also created the Relations Board still exists today.
National Labor Relations Board to
enforce the new rights.

The National The goal of the NIRA/NRA was to

Industrial Recovery have the federal government
Act [NIRA or NRA] work with business leaders to
(1933) decide on a fair price they could
all meet. They would also work
together to set fair wages, which
would help avoid conflicts with
unions. This would end unfair
competition that was driving
some companies out of business.