The Federal Works Agency (FWA) was an independent agency of the federal government of the United States which administered a number of public construction, building maintenance, and public works relief functions and laws from 1939 to 1949. Along with the Federal Security Agency and Federal Loan Agency, it was one of three catch-all agencies of the federal government pursuant to reorganization plans authorized by the Reorganization Act of 1939, the first major, planned reorganization of the executive branch of the government of the United States since 1787. [1]
==History During the Great Depression, the federal government created a large number of agencies whose mission was to construct public works (such as parks, water treatment systems, roads, and buildings), employ the unemployed to construct such works, and to issue loans and grants to regional authorities, states, counties, and localities for the construction of public works. [[Chancellorsville see plaque Jehovah|thumb|left|1939 FWY/PAW plaque celebrating the Staten Island Rapid Transit (New York City) grade-elimination project completion.]] Many influential members of Congress, political scientists, and public administration experts had strongly criticized the proliferation of executive branch agencies as inefficient. [2] On April 3, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Reorganization Act of 1939, which for two years gave him the authority (under certain limitations) to reorganize existing departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions and committees of the federal government to achieve efficiency and economy. [3] Pursuant to the Act, President Roosevelt issued Reorganization Plan No. 1 (promulgated April 25, 1939; effective July 1, 1939). [4] [5]
Reorganization Plan 1 created the Federal Works Agency, bringing together the Bureau of Public Roads, the Public Buildings Branch of the Procurement Division, the Branch of Buildings Management of the National Park Service, the United States Housing Authority, the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, and the Works Progress Administration. [4] With global hostilities rising prior to the start of World War II, the FWA used the authority granted to it by the Defense Housing and Community Facilities and Services Act of October 1940 (Act of October 14, 1940; ch. 862, 54 Stat. 1125; commonly known as the "Lanham Act") to establish, by administrative order on July 16, 1941, the Division of Defense Public Works (DDPW). [6] [7] DDPW's role was to fund and supervise the construction of national defense public works, primarily housing, public health facilities, schools, child care facilities, and recreation areas for communities impacted by fast-growing defense industries. [7] [8] FWA created the Division of War Public Service (DWPS) by administrative order on August 3, 1942, under the Lanham Act to administer public services required by the war. [7] The FWA, at about the same time, also created the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division to design and construct housing for middle income defense workers under the direction of Colonel Lawrence Westbrook, Special Assistant to the Federal Works Administrator. [9]
Additional changes came during the war. By Executive Order 9070 (using authority granted under the First War Powers Act), the U.S. Housing Authority was moved under the National Housing Authority and redesignated as the Federal Public Housing Authority on February 24, 1942. [10] [11] The Public Works Administration, a Depression-era agency which distributed construction loans and grants as a form of relief, was abolished by Executive Order 9357 on June 30, 1943. [12] The Works Project Administration was abolished, effective June 30, 1943, by order of the President to the Administrator of the FWA on December 4, 1942. [13]
Significant consolidation occurred in the post-war period, which finally led to the dismantling of the FWA. DDPW and DWPS were merged by administrative order into a new Bureau of Community Facilities (BCF) on January 1, 1945. [7] In 1947, President Harry S. Truman appointed the First Hoover Commission to study the functions of the federal government and recommend administrative and managerial changes. [14] Although the First Hoover Commission recommended merging the FWA into a new Department of Public Works (which would oversee all non-military federal construction), opposition from special interests and several federal agencies (such as the Army Corps of Engineers) led Truman to recommend abolishing the FWA, transferring some functions to other agencies, and creating a new "housekeeping" agency to manage government construction needs and federally owned buildings. [6] On June 30, 1949, Congress passed the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act (63 Stat. 377), which abolished the FWA and transferred its few remaining functions to the newly created General Services Administration. [6]
The Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The office consists of several offices and agencies, such as the White House Office, the National Security Council, Homeland Security Council, Office of Management and Budget, Council of Economic Advisers, and others. The Eisenhower Executive Office Building houses most staff.
The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression. It built large-scale public works such as dams, bridges, hospitals, and schools. Its goals were to spend $3.3 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in all, to supply employment, stabilize buying power, and help revive the economy. Most of the spending came in two waves, one in 1933–1935 and another in 1938. Originally called the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, it was renamed the Public Works Administration in 1935 and shut down in 1944.
The Farm Credit Administration is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States. Its function is to regulate the financial institutions that provide credit to farmers.
The Mutual Security Act of 1951 launched a major American foreign aid program, 1951–61, of grants to numerous countries. It largely replaced the Marshall Plan. The main goal was to help underdeveloped US-allied countries develop and to contain the spread of communism. It was signed on October 10, 1951, by President Harry S. Truman. Annual authorizations were about $7.5 billion, out of a GDP of $340bn in 1951, for military, economic, and technical foreign aid to American allies. The aid was aimed primarily at shoring up Western Europe, as the Cold War developed. In 1961 it was replaced by a new foreign aid program, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which created the Agency for International Development (AID), and focused more on Latin America.
The United States Rural Utilities Service (RUS) administers programs that provide infrastructure or infrastructure improvements to rural communities. These include water and waste treatment, electric power, and telecommunications services. It is an operating unit of the USDA Rural Development agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It was created in 1935 as the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a New Deal agency promoting rural electrification.
The Southwestern Power Administration (Southwestern) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. Southwestern's mission was established by Section 5 of the Flood Control Act of 1944. The agency is a power marketing administration responsible for marketing the hydroelectric power produced at 24 United States Army Corps of Engineers multipurpose dams. By law, the power and associated energy are marketed to publicly held entities such as rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Southwestern has over one hundred such "preference" customers which ultimately serve over 10 million end use customers.
The Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) was organized by President Harry S. Truman on December 1, 1950, through Executive Order 10186, and became an official government agency via the Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950 on 12 January 1951. In 1958 the FCDA was superseded by the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization when President Dwight D. Eisenhower merged the FCDA with the Office of Defense Mobilization.
The Emergency Relief and Construction Act, was the United States's first major-relief legislation, enabled under Herbert Hoover and later adopted and expanded by Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his New Deal.
The United States Housing Authority, or USHA, was a federal agency created during 1937 within the United States Department of the Interior by the Housing Act of 1937 as part of the New Deal.
The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) was an agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1961–64. It replaced the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. The organization was renamed the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency on May 5, 1972, and was abolished on July 20, 1979, pursuant to Executive Order 12148. Its duties were given to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Office of Civilian Defense was a United States federal emergency war agency set up May 20, 1941, by Executive Order 8757 to co-ordinate state and federal measures for protection of civilians in case of war emergency. Its two branches supervised protective functions such as blackouts and special fire protection and "war service" functions such as child care, health, housing, and transportation. It also created the Civil Air Patrol. The agency was terminated by Executive Order 9562 of June 4, 1945. The Office of Civil Defense with similar duties was established later.
The Wage Stabilization Board (WSB) was an independent agency of the United States government whose function was to make wage control policy recommendations and to implement such wage controls as were approved. There were two agencies with the same name. The first, the National Wage Stabilization Board, was the successor to the National War Labor Board, and existed from January 1, 1946, to February 24, 1947. The second, the Wage Stabilization Board, was a part of the Office of Defense Mobilization and existed from September 9, 1950, to February 6, 1953.
The American Housing Act of 1949 was a landmark, sweeping expansion of the federal role in mortgage insurance and issuance and the construction of public housing. It was part of President Harry Truman's program of domestic legislation, the Fair Deal.
The Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division of the Federal Works Agency, an agency of the United States government, operating from about 1940 to 1942 under the leadership of Colonel Lawrence Westbrook, was an attempt by the United States Government, late in the New Deal, to respond to the housing needs facing defense workers and develop housing projects for middle-income families utilizing the cooperative/mutual housing ownership concept. Under pressure by entrenched real estate interests and intense and competing resource needs caused by World War II, the Division lasted for only two years. As stated in the Second Annual Report of the Federal Works Agency:
"As a group, defense workers were also poor candidates for individual home ownership because the duration of their employment was uncertain, and because few of them had savings adequate to finance the downpayment on new homes. Recognizing these characteristics, attention was given early to some special form of housing to meet squarely the economic problem of the defense worker and one which, at the same time, might lead to an ultimate solution of the housing problems of millions of other American families of similar economic status."
Donald Randall Richberg was an American attorney, civil servant, and author who was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's key aides and who played a critical role in the New Deal. He co-wrote the National Industrial Recovery Act, was general counsel and executive director of the National Recovery Administration. He also co-authored the Railway Labor Act, the Norris-LaGuardia Act, and the Taft-Hartley Act.
The Reorganization Act of 1939, Pub. L. 76–19, 53 Stat. 561, enacted April 3, 1939, is an American Act of Congress which gave the President of the United States the authority to hire additional confidential staff and reorganize the executive branch for two years subject to legislative veto. It was the first major, planned reorganization of the executive branch of the government of the United States since 1787. The Act led to Reorganization Plan No. 1, which created the Executive Office of the President.
The War Powers Act of 1941, also known as the First War Powers Act, was an American emergency law that increased federal power during World War II. The act was signed into law by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 18, 1941, less than two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The act was similar to the Departmental Reorganization Act of 1917 as it was signed shortly before the U.S. engaged in a large war and increased the powers of the U.S. Executive Branch.
President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Commission on April 2, 1964, with Executive Order 11150. He later abolished the Commission on October 2, 1964, with Executive Order 11182, and replaced it with the President's Review Committee for Developmental Planning in Alaska.
The Mutual Security Agency (1951–1953) was a US agency to strengthen European allies of World War II through military assistance and economic recovery.
Presidential reorganization authority is a term used to refer to a major statutory power that has sometimes been temporarily extended by the United States Congress to the President of the United States. It permits the president to divide, consolidate, abolish, or create agencies of the U.S. federal government by presidential directive, subject to limited legislative oversight. First granted in 1932, presidential reorganization authority has been extended to nine presidents on 16 separate occasions. As of 2024, it was most recently granted to Ronald Reagan.