Record of the 75th Congress

Report Outline
Major Legislation, 75th Congress, First Session
Judicial Reform and Government Reorganization
Budget, Taxation, Relief, Economy
Social and Economic Legislation
Agricultural Legislation
Regional Development and Power Bills
Neutrality; Anti-War Bill, Treaties
Special Focus

Major Legislation, 75th Congress, First Session

The Seventy-Fifth Congress, chosen in the Roosevelt-landslide election of November, 1936, met for its first session on January 5, 1937. The session reached a sine die adjournment on August 21. Its most notable contribution to history was the rejection by the Senate of President Roosevelt's plan for reorganization of the United States Supreme Court.

Difficulties were encountered by two other permanent measures asked by the President to forward the objectives of the New Deal and both were left unenacted when the session adjourned. They were (1) the administration's labor standards bill, intended to replace in part the invalidated National Industrial Recovery Act; (2) crop control legislation to replace the invalidated Agricultural Adjustment Act.

A considerable volume of legislation was placed on the statute books, but most of it did nothing more than renew earlier New Deal enactments for additional periods of two or three years. Final approval was given to a new housing act, a farm tenancy act, a revised neutrality act, and a $1,500,000,000 appropriation for relief, but few other measures enacted at the first session of the Third New Deal Congress were of outstanding importance.