"first hundred days"

At the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as President on March 4, 1933, and called Congress into special session. Lasting from March 9 to June 15, 1933, this session became known as the “first hundred days” of the New Deal. Responding to the economic crisis, Congress passed an extraordinary amount of major legislation in a remarkably short period.

During the hundred days, Congress enacted emergency banking legislation to restore stable banking, emergency relief legislation, a public works bill, a Civilian Conservation Corps bill to provide relief and create jobs, the National Industrial Recovery Administration to establish federal economic planning, the Federal Securities Act to regulate the sale of stocks, the Agricultural Adjustment Act and Farm Credit Act to help farmers, and the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide electrical power and jobs. These laws were designed to bring recovery, relief, and reform.

Although some of these programs had originated in Congress, the first hundred days in general represented congressional yielding to strong Presidential leadership. In later years other Presidents' legislative successes have been measured against—but few have come close to matching–Roosevelt's first hundred days. Acutely aware of this pressure, John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address, “It won't be done in the first hundred days….” By comparison, Ronald Reagan consciously sought to establish his policies during the important first hundred days. Similarly, when House Republicans regained the majority in 1995, they pledged to enact their Contract with America in the first hundred days as a sign of their determination to change the direction of government policies.

Sources

• Fred L. Israel, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York: Chelsea House, 1985)