Federal Emergency Relief Administration

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was the new name given by the Roosevelt Administration to the "Emergency Relief Administration" set up by Herbert Hoover in 1932. It was established as a result of the Federal Emergency Relief Act and was replaced in 1935 by the WPA.

ERA under Hoover gave loans to the states to operate relief programs. FERA, started in May 1933, gave grants to the states for the same purpose. The Federal Emergency Relief Act was the first relief operation under the New Deal, and was headed by Harry L. Hopkins, a New York social worker who was one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's most influential advisers. Hopkins was a believer in relief efforts that emphasized work.

FERA's main goal was alleviating household unemployment by creating new unskilled jobs in local and state government. From May 1933 until it closed in December, 1935, FERA gave states and localities $3.1 billion. FERA provided work for over 20 million people and developed facilities on public lands across the country.

Faced with continued high unemployment and concerns for public welfare during the coming winter of 1933-34, FERA instituted the Civil Works Administration (CWA) as a $400 million short-term measure to get people to work. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration was terminated in 1935 and its work taken over by two entirely federal agencies, the WPA and the Social Security Board.

Bibliography

• Bremer William W. "Along the American Way: The New Deal's Work Relief Programs for the Unemployed." Journal of American History 62 (December 1975): 636-652. online at JSTOR
• Brock William R. Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal (1988), a British view
• Charles, Searle F. Minister of Relief: Harry Hopkins and the Depression (1963)
• Hopkins, June. "The road not taken: Harry Hopkins and New Deal Work Relief." Presidential Studies Quarterly 29, 2(306-316). online edition
• Meriam; Lewis. Relief and Social Security The Brookings Institution. (1946). Highly detailed analysis and statistical summary of all New Deal relief programs; 900 pages

online edition

• Sautter, Udo. Three Cheers for the Unemployed: Government and Unemployment before the New Deal (1992) excerpt and text search
• Singleton, Jeff. The American Dole: Unemployment Relief and the Welfare State in the Great Depression (2000) excerpt and text search
• Sternsher, Bernard. Rexford Tugwell and the New Deal (1964) online edition
• Williams; Edward Ainsworth Federal Aid for Relief (1939) online edition

Primary sources

• Hopkins, Harry L. Spending to save: the complete story of relief. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1936.
• Kirk, J.S. ed.Emergency Relief in North Carolina a Record of the Development and the Activities of the North Carolina Emergency Relief Administration 1932-1935 (1936) 544pp; complete text online

External links

• [1] program description
• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Federal Emergency Relief Administration Photographs Essay on the program and images documenting the Federal Emergency Relief Administration program in King County, Washington, 1933-35.

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