The Second New Deal

¶ … Second New Deal

Many of the New Deal early bills had been drafted fairly hastily, and thus were declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court (New pp). President Roosevelt now exploited developing class divisions, formed closer relations with organized labor, and increasingly castigated the big business groups that were opposed to his New Deal programs (New pp). Beginning in 1935, these reverses, together with the political opposition, resulted in a second flood of legislation, referred to as the Second New Deal, that included measures such as higher taxes for the rich, strict regulations for private utilities, subsidies for rural electrification, and a bill of rights for organized labor known as the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which gave federal protection to the bargaining process for workers and established a set of fail employment standards (New pp). The National Labor Relations Act, sometimes referred to as the Wagner Act, guaranteed workers the right to organize and bargain through unions, and the federal Labor Standards Act of 1938, mandated maximum hours and minimum wages (New pp).

In 1935, a new federalized work relief program was administered by the Works Progress Administration, and Congress enacted the Social Security Act, which contained three major programs, a retirement fund, unemployment insurance, and welfare grants for local distribution, including aid for dependent children (New pp).