Public Works Administration

P.W.A. funded construction site in Washington D.C., circa 1933.

The Public Works Administration (P.W.A.), a New Deal government agency headed by Harold Ickes, was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 during the Great Depression.^[1] It allowed 3.3 billion dollars to be spent on the construction of public works to provide employment, stabilize purchasing power, improve public welfare, and contribute to a revival of American industry.^[1] When President Franklin Roosevelt moved industry toward war production and abandoned his opposition to deficit spending, the PWA became irrelevant and was abolished in June 1941.

[edit] References

• Works Progress Administration, America Builds: The Record of WPA (1939)
• Harold L. Ickes, Back to Work: The Story of WPA (1935)
• Jason Scott Smith, Building New Deal Liberalism: The Political Economy of Public Works, 1933-1956 (2006)

[edit] External links

• Housing Projects built by the Public Works Administration (P.W.A.)

[edit] See also

• Public Works