Agricultural Adjustment Act

Examples of Agricultural Adjustment Act in the following topics:

• Farm and Rural Programs

  • The Agricultural Adjustment Act, one of the more controversial acts, attempted to plan and regulate the agricultural sector of the economy.
  • One of the New Deal's more contraversial programs was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which attempted to plan and regulate the agricultural sector of the economy.
  • The main point of the case was whether certain provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 conflicted with the Constitution.
  • The intent of the act was to increase the prices of certain farm products by decreasing the quantities produced.
  • Although the Act stimulated American agriculture, it was not without its faults.

• Agricultural Initiatives and Recovery

  • Because of the war effort, agricultural production and prices were record high.
  • However, in the aftermath of WWI, the agricultural sector began collapsing under the weight of its own success.
  • The legislation that aimed to achieve this goal was the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), one of the New Deal's flagship but also most controversial programs.  
  • In the aftermath of this decision, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 followed.
  • Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act (1936): Allowed the government to pay farmers to reduce production in order to conserve soil and prevent erosion.

• Relief for the Unemployed

  • The Agricultural Adjustment Act created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) in May 1933.
  • The act reflected the demands of leaders of major farm organizations and reflected debates among Roosevelt's farm advisers.
  • The AAA established an important and long-lasting federal role in the planning of the agricultural sector of the economy.
  • It was the first program on such a scale on behalf of the troubled agricultural economy.
  • The Farm Tenancy Act was created, which in turn created the Farm Security Administration (FSA), replacing the Resettlement Administration.

• The Great Depression and the New Deal

  • The "Second New Deal" in 1935–38 included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program, the Social Security Act, and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers.
  • The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and Farm Security Administration, both in 1937, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers.
  • The Supreme Court declared the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and the first version of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) unconstitutional, although the AAA was rewritten and then upheld.
  • The New Deal regulation of banking (Glass–Steagall Act) was suspended in the 1990s.

• The Last of the New Deal Reforms

  • In the fall of 1937, the Housing Act (known also as the Wagner-Steagall Act) introduced government subsidies for local public housing agencies to improve living conditions for low-income families.
  • In February 1938, Congress passed the second Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), which authorized crop loans, crop insurance against natural disasters, and large subsidies to farmers who cut back production.
  • One of the most influential pieces of legislation passed in the final stage of the New Deal was also the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
  • Historians estimate that the Act's provisions covered not more than 20% of labor force.
  • Also, the ban on child labor introduced in FLSA did not cover agriculture where child labor was rampant.

• Neglected Americans and the New Deal

  • For example, the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) drove many black farmers from the land.
  • Analogously, the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which established federal minimum wage and maximum working hours, excluded agricultural and domestic labor.
  • The Bankhead–Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937 provided affordable loans to tenant farmers in order to purchase land but relatively few African Americans benefited from the Act's provisions.
  • The 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act, the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, and the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act all excluded agricultural and domestic workers.
  • Even the 1935 Social Security Act (SSA) heavily discriminated against women.

• Launching the New Deal

  • The creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (1933).
  • Among many initiatives, AAA provided farm subsidies in exchange for curbed agricultural production (farmers would not cultivate all of the land on their farms) and manipulated farm product prices by buying and temporary withholding products from the market.
  • The National Labor Relations Act (1933; known also as the Wagner Act), which established the National Labor Relations Board (1935).
  • The Act remains a groundbreaking statute in the United States labor law.
  • The Housing Act (1937) provided funds for low-coast public housing for the poorest families.

• Employment Policy

  • These federal laws do not apply to employees of state and local governments, agricultural workers and domestic employees; any statutory protections these workers have derived from state law.
  • The Taft-Hartley Act (also known as the "Labor-Management Relations Act"), passed in 1947, loosened some of the restrictions on employers, changed NLRB election procedures, and added a number of limitations on unions.
  • The Act, among other things, prohibits jurisdictional strikes and secondary boycotts by unions, and authorizes individual states to pass "right-to-work laws", regulates pension and other benefit plans established by unions and provides that federal courts have jurisdiction to enforce collective bargaining agreements.
  • The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) establishes minimum wage and overtime rights for most private sector workers, with a number of exemptions and exceptions.
  • The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, better known by its acronym, the WARN Act, requires private sector employers to give sixty days' notice of large-scale layoffs and plant closures; it allows a number of exceptions for unforeseen emergencies and other cases.

• Competing Solutions

  • First, in 1930, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that raised U.S. tariffs.
  • Finally, the 1932 Norris-La Guardia Anti-injunction Act supported the organized labor.
  • The creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (1933).
  • The National Labor Relations Act (1933), which established the National Labor Relations Board (1935).
  • The Social Security Act (1935) established financial support for dependent minors, the disabled, and the elderly.

• Challenges to the New Deal

  • While the League's members were divided over the National Recovery Administration, they fervently criticized the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (calling it "a trend toward Fascist control of agriculture") and Social Security (which they saw a marking "the end of democracy").
  • The League's lawyers also challenged the 1936 National Labor Relations Act but the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality.