Roosevelt's Forest Army · Episode 13 of 14 · 38 min
Why Congress Killed Its Most Popular Program (1942)
In 1942 Congress shut down the most popular program of the New Deal at the height of its acclaim. The episode lays out the wartime turn, the long-standing objections from fiscal conservatives and labor, Franklin Roosevelt's failed bid to make the corps permanent, and what died with it versus what survived.
Who's who
- Franklin D. Roosevelt+28 more episodesPresident who sought a permanent CCC and fought to save it
- Albert J. EngelMichigan congressman who led House forces for abolition
- William Green+1 more episodeAFL president and long-running critic of the CCC
- Robert Fechner+5 more episodesCCC director from 1933 until his death in 1939
- James McEnteeFechner's deputy who succeeded him
Timeline
- April 5, 1937Roosevelt asks Congress to make the CCC permanent; Congress declines
- September 16, 1940First U.S. peacetime draft begins to drain the camps
- December 7, 1941Pearl Harbor hardens the argument that the emergency is over
- June 5, 1942House defeats the CCC appropriation
- July 2, 1942Congress orders liquidation of the CCC
Still debated
The CCC was defunded and liquidated rather than abolished by a single vote. Historians weigh whether the war alone doomed it or gave long-standing conservative and labor opponents cover to finish it.
← PreviousWere There Women in the CCC? The Camps History ForgotNext →Why America Keeps Trying to Rebuild the CCC
Connected episodes in other series
The Good War's Fine Print: The WWII Draft's Forgotten LosersGreeting: America and the Draft · Episode 5Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
FDR's Thousand-Mile Tree Wall: The Dust Bowl ShelterbeltGround Truth: Forest Service Research · Episode 5Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
An Honorable Discharge: How the WPA Ended in 1943The Infinite Dividend: The WPA · Episode 12Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
A Town the War Built: Marin City's Long Fight to IntegrateLiberty Ships, Closed Doors · Episode 1Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt