|
|
|
|
73rd United States Congress
|
| |
|
| |
The Seventy-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1933 to January 3, 1935, during the first two years of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. Because of the newly-ratified 20th Amendment, this Congress was actually about 2 months short of 2 years in duration. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Fifteenth Census of the United States in 1930.

Discussion
Ask a question about '73rd United States Congress'
Start a new discussion about '73rd United States Congress'
Answer questions from other users
|
Encyclopedia
The Seventy-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1933 to January 3, 1935, during the first two years of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. Because of the newly-ratified 20th Amendment, this Congress was actually about 2 months short of 2 years in duration. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Fifteenth Census of the United States in 1930. Both chambers had a Democratic majority.
Major events
Major legislation
First Session
The first session of Congress, known as the "Hundred Days," took place before the regular seating and was called by President Roosevelt specifically to pass two acts:
- 1933-03-09 The Emergency Banking Act (ch. 1, ) was enacted within four hours of its introduction. It was prompted by the "bank holiday" and was the first step in Roosevelt's "first hundred days" of the New Deal. The Act was drafted in large part by officials appointed by the Hoover administration. The bill provided for the Treasury Department to initiate reserve requirements and a federal bailout to large failing institutions. It also removed the United States from the Gold Standard. All banks had to undergo a federal inspection to deem if they were stable enough to re-open. Within a week 1/3rd of the banks re-opened in the United States and faith was, in large part, restored in the banking system. The act had few opponents, only taking fire from the farthest left elements of Congress who wanted to nationalize banks altogether.
- 1933-03-10 The Economy Act of 1933. Roosevelt, in sending this act to Congress, warned that if it did not pass, the country faced a billion dollar deficit. The act balanced the federal budget by cutting the salaries of government employees and cutting pensions to veterans by as much as 15 percent. It intended to reassure the deficit hawks that the new president was fiscally conservative. Although the act was heavily protested by left-leaning members of congress, it passed by an overwhelming margin.
 The session also passed several other major pieces of legislation:
- 1933-03-31 The Civilian Conservation Corps Reforestation Relief Act (ch. 17, ) established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as a means to combat unemployment and poverty.
- 1933-05-12 The Agricultural Adjustment Act (ch. 25, ) was part of a plan developed by Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, and was designed to protect American farmers from the uncertainties of the depression through subsidies and production controls. The act laid the frame for long-term government control in the planning of the agricultural sector. In 1936 the act was ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court because it taxed one group to pay for another.
- 1933-05-12 The Federal Emergency Relief Act (ch. 30, ) established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) which develop public works projects to give work to the unemployed.
- 1933-05-18 The Tennessee Valley Authority Act (ch. 32, ) created the Tennessee Valley Authority to relieve the Tennessee Valley by a series of public works projects.
- 1933-06-05 The Securities Act of 1933 (ch. 38, ) established the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) as a way for the government to prevent a repeat of the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
- 1933-06-12 The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 (ch. 89, ) was a follow up to the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932. Both acts sought to make banking safer and less prone to speculation. The 1933 act, however, established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
- 1933-06-16 The National Industrial Recovery Act ("NIRA," ch. 90, ) was an anti-deflation scheme promoted by the Chamber of Commerce that reversed anti-trust laws and permit trade associations to cooperate in stabilizing prices within their industries while making businesses ensure that the incomes of workers would rise along with their prices. It guaranteed to workers of the right of collective bargaining and helped spur major union organizing drives in major industries. In case consumer buying power lagged behind, thereby defeating the administration's initiatives, the NIRA created the Public Works Administration (PWA), a major program of public works spending designed to alleviate unemployment, and moreover to transfer funds to certain beneficiaries. The NIRA established the most important, but ultimately least successful provision: a new federal agency known as the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which attempted to stabilize prices and wages through cooperative "code authorities" involving government, business, and labor. The NIRA was seen hailed as a miracle, responding to the needs of labor, business, unemployment, and the deflation crisis. The "sick chicken case" led to the Supreme Court invalidating NIRA in 1935.
Second Session
- 1934-06-06 The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (ch. 404, ) grew out of the Securities Act of 1933 and regulated participation in financial markets.
- 1934-06-26 The National Firearms Act of 1934 (ch. 757, ) regulated machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns.
Constitutional amendments
Hearings
"Merchants of Death"
- Committee: United States Senate Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry
- Chairman: Senator Gerald P. Nye (R)
- Duration: September 4, 1934-February 24, 1936
The Senate Munitions Committee came into existence solely for the purpose of this hearing. Although World War I had been over for sixteen years, there were revived reports that America's leading munition companies had effectively influenced the United States into that conflict, which killed 53,000 Americans, hence the companies' nickname "Merchants of Death."
The Democratic Party, controlling the Senate for the first time since the first world war, used the hype of these reports to organize the hearing in hopes of nationalizing America's munitions industry. The Democrats chose a Republican renowned for his ardent isolationist policies, Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, to head the hearing. Nye was typical of western agrarian progressives, and adamantly opposed America's involvement in any foreign war. Nye declared at the opening of the hearing "when the Senate investigation is over, we shall see that war and preparation for war is not a matter of national honor and national defense, but a matter of profit for the few."
Over the next eighteen months, the "Nye Committee" (as newspapers called it) held ninety-three hearings, questioning more than two hundred witnesses, including J.P. Morgan, Jr. and Pierre du Pont. Committee members found little hard evidence of an active conspiracy among arms makers, yet the panels reports did little to weaken the popular prejudice against "greedy munitions interests."
The hearings overlapped the 73rd and 74th Congresses. They only came to an end after Chairman Nye provoked the Democratic caucus into cutting off funding. Nye, in the last hearing the Committee held in early 1936, attacked former Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, suggesting that Wilson had withheld essential information from Congress as it considered a declaration of war. Democratic leaders, including Appropriations Committee Chairman Carter Glass of Virginia, unleashed a furious response against Nye for "dirtdaubing the sepulcher of Woodrow Wilson." Standing before cheering colleagues in a packed Senate chamber, Glass slammed his fist onto his desk in protest until blood dripped from his knuckles, effectively prompting the Democratic caucus to withhold all funding for further hearings.
Although the "Nye Committee" failed to achieve its goal of nationalizing the arms industry, it inspired three congressional neutrality acts in the mid-1930s that signaled profound American opposition to overseas involvement.
Party summary
For details, see Changes in Membership, below.
Senate There were 48 states with two Senators per state gave the Senate 96 seats. Membership changed with four deaths, one resignation, and two appointees who were replaced by electees.
| Party | Total |
|
|---|
| | | | | | Democratic | Republican | Farmer-Labor | Vacant |
|---|
| Begin (1933-03-04) | 59 | 36 | 1 | 96 | 0
|
|---|
| 1933-03-11 | 35 | 95 | 1
|
|---|
| 1933-05-24 | 60 | 96 | 0
|
|---|
| 1933-06-24 | 59 | 95 | 1
|
|---|
| 1933-10-06 | 34 | 94 | 2
|
|---|
| 1933-10-19 | 35 | 95 | 1
|
|---|
| 1933-11-03 | 58 | 94 | 2
|
|---|
| 1933-11-06 | 59 | 95 | 1
|
|---|
| 1934-01-01 | 60 | 96 | 0
|
|---|
| 1934-11-07
|
|---|
| Latest voting share | 63% | 36% | 1% | | |
|---|
House of Representatives Membership changed with twelve deaths and three resignations.
| Party | Total |
|
|---|
| | | | | | Democratic | Republican | Farmer-Labor | Vacant |
|---|
| Begin (1933-03-04) | 311 | 117 | 5 | 433 | 2
|
|---|
| 1933-04-22 | 312 | 434 | 1
|
|---|
| 1933-04-29 | 311 | 433 | 2
|
|---|
| 1933-05-12 | 310 | 432 | 3
|
|---|
| 1933-05-17 | 309 | 431 | 4
|
|---|
| 1933-06-19 | 308 | 430 | 5
|
|---|
| 1933-06-22 | 307 | 429 | 6
|
|---|
| 1933-06-24 | 308 | 430 | 5
|
|---|
| 1933-07-05 | 309 | 431 | 4
|
|---|
| 1933-08-27 | 116 | 430 | 5
|
|---|
| 1933-09-23 | 308 | 429 | 6
|
|---|
| 1933-10-03 | 309 | 430 | 5
|
|---|
| 1933-10-19 | 115 | 429 | 6
|
|---|
| 1933-11-05 | 114 | 428 | 7
|
|---|
| 1933-11-07 | 310 | 429 | 6
|
|---|
| 1933-11-14 | 311 | 430 | 5
|
|---|
| 1933-11-28 | 312 | 431 | 4
|
|---|
| 1933-12-19 | 313 | 432 | 3
|
|---|
| 1933-12-19 | 113 | 431 | 4
|
|---|
| 1933-12-28 | 114 | 432 | 3
|
|---|
| 1934-01-16 | 115 | 433 | 2
|
|---|
| 1934-01-30 | 116 | 434 | 1
|
|---|
| 1934-04-01 | 312 | 433 | 2
|
|---|
| 1934-05-01 | 313 | 434 | 1
|
|---|
| 1934-05-29 | 115 | 433 | 2
|
|---|
| 1934-06-08 | 312 | 432 | 3
|
|---|
| 1934-07-07 | 313 | 433 | 2
|
|---|
| 1934-08-19 | 312 | 432 | 3
|
|---|
| 1934-09-30 | 114 | 431 | 4
|
|---|
| Latest voting share | 72.4% | 26.4% | 1.2% | |
|
|---|
Leadership
| Contents: Senate: | Majority (Democratic) leadership Minority (Republican) leadership | | House of Representatives: | Majority (Democratic) leadership Minority (Republican) leadership |
Senate
Majority (Democratic) leadership
- Majority Leader and Democratic Conference Chairman: Joseph T. Robinson
- Assistant Majority Leader (Majority Whip): J. Hamilton Lewis
Minority (Republican) leadership
House of Representatives
Majority (Democratic) leadership
Minority (Republican) leadership
Members
Senate
Senators are popularly elected statewide every two years, with one-third beginning new six year terms with each Congress. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election.
House of Representatives
The names of members of the House of Representatives elected statewide at-large, are preceded by an "A/L," and the names of those elected from districts, whether plural or single member, are preceded by their district numbers.
Many of the congressional district numbers are linked to articles describing the district itself. Since the boundaries of the districts have changed often and substantially, the linked article may only describe the district as it exists today, and not as it was at the time of this Congress.
- . Isabella Selmes Greenway (D)
. David D. Terry (D), elected December 19, 1933
Indiana
- . T. Alan Goldsborough (D)
- . William P. Cole, Jr. (D)
- . Vincent L. Palmisano (D)
- . Ambrose J. Kennedy (D)
- . Stephen W. Gambrill (D)
- . David J. Lewis (D)
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Mexico
| |