Record of the 76th Congress (First Session)

Report Outline
Defeats for Administration at First Session
Taxation, Appropriations, Lending and Monetary Legislation
Government Reorganization
Relief Appropriations for 1939 and 1940
Agricultural Legislation
Regulatory and Economic Legislation
Social Security and Labor Legislation
National Defense and Neutrality
Special Focus

Defeats for Administration at First Session

The first session of the “Revisionist Congress,” chosen in the election of November, 1938, came to a close August 5, 1939, after an almost unbroken succession of defeats for the President and his policies during its last six weeks. Refusal of the House to consider the President's lending-for-recovery program was the outstanding administration' defeat of the session. It will have more far-reaching results than the rejection of the Supreme Court reorganization plan in 1937 or the shelving of the government reorganization plan in 1938 because of the imminence of the l?40 presidential campaign.

The new Congress made no fundamental changes in basic New Deal laws and made no progress toward balancing the federal budget. The President was unable, on his part, to obtain a fervently desired revision of the Neutrality act. Administration leaders in Congress succeeded in blocking amendments to the Wage-Hour act and the Labor Relations act, but were unable to defeat a House resolution to investigate the National Labor Relations Board or to prevent enactment of the Hatch bill to prohibit “pernicious political activities” by federal office holders.

The outstanding administration success of the session was acceptance by Congress of the national defense program submitted by the President with only one substantial change—elimination of the Guam air base. Defense appropriations were larger than those originally asked by the President, and funds made available for virtually all other governmental activities, excepting work relief, exceeded those of any previous Congress.