Federal Emergency Relief Administration
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Facts
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Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 1:
The Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA) was the first mass public
assistance program put into effect by President
Roosevelt's Administration under the New Deal.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
2:
The Federal Emergency Relief Act, was passed by
Congress on May 12, 1933. The law provided for cooperation by the
Federal Government with states to relieve the hardship and suffering
caused by unemployment.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
3: The Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA) was created by the law and
allocated an initial fund of half billion dollars to
help those in need.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 4:
FERA was not initially established to create programs
for the unemployed, its purpose was to channel government money to
state agencies to fund their local relief projects
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 5:
FDR appointed the dynamic Harry Hopkins, who was the
chairman of the New York State Temporary Emergency Relief
Administration, as director of the FERA program on May 22, 1933 who
took charge and started work on the program and immediately took
action
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 6:
Harry Hopkins set up a makeshift
office in the halls of the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation, a U.S. government agency, created in 1932
by the administration of Herbert Hoover. The purpose of
the RFC was to facilitate economic activity by lending
money during the Great Depression
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 7:
Harry Hopkins appointed staff and
immediately began collecting information. He sent
telegrams to the Governors of the 48 states that they
should set up state organizations to allow him to
coordinate the program
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 8:
It is said that Harry Hopkins
disbursed over $5 million to eight states in his first
two hours in his new job. He was reacting to FDR's
request to get adequate and speedy help to the
unemployed. FDR is also said to have advised Harry
Hopkins to ignore the politicians
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
9:
Home Relief Bureaus and Departments of Welfare for Poor
Relief were established but by the fall of 1933 it was
apparent that neither FERA nor the Public Works
Administration (PWA) had significantly reduced
unemployment
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 10:
Harry Hopkins feuded with ultra
prudent Harold L. Ickes, who ran the
Public Works
Administration (PWA) which issued contracts for
heavy constructions projects that improved the nation's
infrastructure and invigorated America’s "core
industries".
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 11:
The slow moving PWA focused on heavy
construction projects that benefited skilled
construction workers, engineers and architects but was
not conducive to large scale job creation.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
12: Harry Hopkins realized that unless
the federal government acted quickly a massive number of
the unemployed would be in real distress once winter set
in. He voiced his fears to FDR who agreed to take action
and the idea for creating another government agency, the
Civil Works Administration (CWA) was born
Continued...
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Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
13: Faced with continued high
unemployment and concerns for public welfare during the
coming winter of 1933-34, FDR authorized FERA to
establish the Civil Works Administration (CWA) as a $400
million short-term measure to get people to work.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
14: On November 9th, 1933, an executive
order created the Civil Works Administration (CWA) to
provide aid to American men and women who labored on
public works projects.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
15: The Civil Works Administration (CWA)
was planned to be short-lived and last only through the
1933-1934 winter.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 16:
Unlike the Public Works Administration (PWA) who
worked via construction firms, the Civil Works Administration (CWA)
hired workers directly and put them on the federal government's
payroll.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 17:
That winter the CWA employed 4 million people,
including 300,000 women. The men hired by the CWA agency built
40,000 schools, 500,000 miles of roads and 1000 airports. Women were
employed as clerical workers and in in such civil works
projects as sanitation surveys, park beautification, public
records surveys, and museum development.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 18:
The cost of the CWA was huge and the
program spent nearly $1 billion dollars in just 5 months
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact 19:
Harry Hopkins improvised to obtain
funds and poured unallocated PWA funds into the CWA to
finance light construction jobs helping unskilled and
unemployed people through the winter of 1933/34
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
20: FDR became alarmed at the amount of
money the CWA was spending and did not want Americans to
get used to the idea that the federal government would
provide them with jobs.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
21: To emphasize that the CWA had been a
temporary measure the agency was closed down by Harry
Hopkins in April 1934. The agency was restructured and
FERA’s program of direct cash assistance was abandoned,
and work relief programs were adopted
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
22: The Emergency Relief
Appropriation Act of April 1935 was passed and the
Works
Progress Administration (WPA) was created
to provide public
employment. President Roosevelt appointed Harry L.
Hopkins to administer the WPA which went on to generated
millions of public jobs for many unskilled, unemployed
workers
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
23: Following the
restructuring, the FERA consisted of three divisions:
public works, social service and rural rehabilitation.
Works included the construction of freezing and
processing plants and establishing a fishing
cooperative, a cattle program
and a a vagrancy program.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration Fact
24: During its first year FERA provided
help to an estimated 17 million poverty stricken
Americans. By the time FERA ended in 1935 the agency had
helped 20 million Americans, 16% of the population, at
$3.1 billion dollars until its responsibilities were
taken over by the Social Security Board and the WPA in
1935.
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Federal Emergency Relief Administration for kids - President Franklin Roosevelt Video
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