73rd United States Congress

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73rd United States Congress
United States Capitol (1956)
Session:	March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1935
President of the Senate:	John Nance Garner
President pro tempore of the Senate:	Key Pittman
Speaker of the House:	Henry T. Rainey
Members:	435 Representatives 100 Senators 5 Territorial Representatives
House Majority:	Democratic
Senate Majority:	Democratic

The Seventy-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, comprised of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1933 to January 3, 1935, during the first two years of the first administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the Fifteenth Census of the United States in 1930. Both chambers had a Democratic majority.

March 4, 1933 - January 3, 1935

Special session of the Senate: March 4, 1933 – March 6, 1933
First session: March 9, 1933 – June 15, 1933
Second session: January 3, 1934 - June 18, 1934

Previous congress: 72nd Congress
Next congress: 74th Congress

Main article: Events of 1933; Events of 1934

March 4, 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt became President of the United States

Main article: List of United States federal legislation in the 73rd Congress

The twentieth amendment to the Constitution became effective in January 1934. This amendment changed both the date for convening Congress and the date for beginning each term. Thus the first session of the 73rd Congress convened in March 1933, but the second session convened in January 1934.
The twenty-first amendment to the Constitution was ratified in December 1933. This amendment repealed the eighteenth amendment which mandated national prohibition in the United States, which had been in effect since the Volstead Act of 1919. The amendment is unusual due to the fact that it was not passed by Congress, but was forced upon the Federal Government by a convention of states. Even though it was not passed by Congress, it still was the most publicized legislation of the day, and had significant effects on the 73rd Congress, particularly in the south, where prohibition was overwhelmingly embraced, and the amendment was seen as a "coup d'etat of immorality," as one southern Congressman remarked.

The special session of Congress, which took place before the regular seating, was called by President Roosevelt specifically to pass two acts:

The Emergency Banking Act was passed on March 9, 1933 within four hours of its introduction. It was prompted by the "bank holiday" and was the first step in Roosevelt's "first hundred days" of the New Deal. The Act was drafted in large part by officials appointed by the Hoover administration. The bill provided for the Treasury Department to initiate reserve requirements and a federal bailout to large failing institutions. It also removed the United States from the Gold Standard. All banks had to undergo a federal inspection to deem if they were stable enough to re-open. Within a week 1/3rd of the banks re-opened in the United States and faith was, in large part, restored in the banking system. The act had few opponents, only taking fire from the farthest left elements of Congress who wanted to nationalize banks all-together.
The Economy Act of 1933 was passed on March 10, 1933. Roosevelt, in sending this act to Congress, warned that if it did not pass, the country faced a billion dollar deficit. The act balanced the federal budget by cutting the salaries of government employees and cutting pensions to veterans by as much as 15 percent. It intended to reassure the deficit hawks that the new president was fiscally conservative. Although the act was heavily protested by left-leaning members of congress, it passed by an overwhelming margin.

The Emergency Conservation Work Act was passed on March 31, 1933. It established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as a means to combat unemployment and poverty.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act was passed on May 12, 1933. It was part of a plan developed by Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, and was designed to protect American farmers from the uncertainties of the depression through subsidies and production controls. The act laid the frame for long-term government control in the planning of the agricultural sector. In 1936 the act was ruled unconstitution by the United States Supreme Court because it taxed one group to pay for another.
The Tennessee Valley Authority Act passed on May 18, 1933. It created the Tennessee Valley Authority to relieve the Tennessee Valley by a series of public works projects.
The Federal Emergency Relief Act passed on May 22, 1933. It established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) which develop public works projects to give work to the unemployed.
The Securities Act of 1933 was passed on June 5, 1933. It established the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) as a way for the government to prevent a repeat of the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was passed on June 12, 1933 and was a follow up to the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932. Both acts sought to make banking safer and less prone to speculation. The 1933 act, however, established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was passed on June 16, 1933. It was an anti-deflation scheme promoted by the Chamber of Commerce that reversed anti-trust laws and permit trade associations to cooperate in stabilizing prices within their industries while making businesses ensure that the incomes of workers would rise along with their prices. It guaranteed to workers of the right of collective bargaining and helped spur major union organizing drives in major industries. In case consumer buying power lagged behind, thereby defeating the administration's initiatives, the NIRA created the Public Works Administration (PWA), a major program of public works spending designed to alleviate unemployment, and moreover to transfer funds to certain beneficiaries. The NIRA established the most important, but ultimately least successful provision: a new federal agency known as the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which attempted to stabilize prices and wages through cooperative "code authorities" involving government, business, and labor. The NIRA was seen hailed as a miracle, responding to the needs of labor, business, unemployment, and the deflation crisis. Unfortunately, the "sick chicken case" lead to the Supreme Court invalidating NIRA in 1935, although it was in effect long enough for it to accomplish a good deal of what it set out to do.

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was a growth off of the Securities Act of 1933 and regulated participation in financial markets.

Committee: U.S. Senate Committee on Munitions
Chairman: Senator Gerald P. Nye (R-North Dakota)
Duration: September 4, 1934-February 1936

The Senate Munitions Committee came into existence souly for the purpose of this hearing. Although World War I had been over for sixteen years, there were revived reports that America's leading munition companies had effectively influenced the United States into that conflict, which killed 53,000 Americans, hence the nickname "Merchants of Death".

The Democratic Party, controlling the Senate for the first time since the first world war, used the hype of these reports to organise the hearing in hopes of nationalizing America's munitions industry. The Democrats chose a Republican renowned for his ardent isolationist policies, Senator Nye of North Dakota, to head the hearing. Nye was typical of western agrarian progressives, and adamantly opposed America's involvement in any foreign war. Nye declared at the opening of the hearing "when the Senate investigation is over, we shall see that war and preparation for war is not a matter of national honor and national defense, but a matter of profit for the few."

Over the next eighteen months, the "Nye Committee" (as newspapers called it) held ninety-three hearings, questioning more than two hundred witnesses, including J.P. Morgan, Jr. and Pierre du Pont. Committee members found little hard evidence of an active conspiracy among arms makers, yet the panel’s reports did little to weaken the popular prejudice against "greedy munitions interests."

The hearings overlapped the 73rd and 74th Congresses. They only came to an end after Chairman Nye provoked the Democratic caucus into cutting off funding. Nye, in the last hearing the Committee held in early 1936, attacked former Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, suggesting that Wilson had withheld essential information from Congress as it considered a declaration of war. Democratic leaders, including Appropriations Committee Chairman Carter Glass of Virginia, unleashed a furious response against Nye for "dirtdaubing the sepulcher of Woodrow Wilson." Standing before cheering colleagues in a packed Senate chamber, Glass slammed his fist onto his desk in protest until blood dripped from his knuckles, effectively prompting the Democratic caucus to withhold all funding for further hearings.

Although the "Nye Committee" failed to achieve its goal of nationalizing the arms industry, it inspired three congressional neutrality acts in the mid-1930s that signaled profound American opposition to overseas involvement.

Affiliation		Members At Seating	Members At Adjournment	Voting share	Note
	Democratic Party	59	60	-%	Senator Robert B. Howell (R-Nebraska) died and was replaced by a Democrat.
	Republican Party	36	35	-%
	Farmer Labor Party	1	1	-%
Total		96	96

Affiliation		Members At Seating	Members At Adjournment	Voting share	Note
	Democratic Party	313	312	-%	^[1]
	Republican Party	117	112	-%	^[2]
	Farmer Labor Party	5	5	-%
	Progressive Party	0	2	-%
Total		435	431		4 Vacancies ^[3]

^ * Representative Thomas C. Coffin (D-Idaho) died and his seat remained vacant until the end of the session.
- Speaker Henry T. Rainey (D-Illinois) died and his seat remained vacant until the end of the session. Likewise, a new Speaker was not elected until the next session.
^ * Representative Henry W. Watson (R-Pennsylvania) died and was replaced by a Democrat.
- Representative George F. Brumm (R-Pennsylvania) died and his seat remained vacant until the end of the session.
- Representative James M. Beck (R-Pennsylvania) resigned and his seat remained vacant until the end of the session.
- Representatives Gardner R. Withrow and Gerald J. Boileau (R-Wisconsin) changed to the Progressive Party.
^ 73rd United States Congress#Changes in Membership

	Position	Name	Party	State	Since
	President	John Nance Garner	Democrat	Texas	1933
	President Pro Tempore	Key Pittman	Democrat	Nevada	1933

Position	Name	State	Since
Senate Majority Leader	Joseph T. Robinson	Arkansas	1933
Senate Majority Whip	J. Hamilton Lewis	Illinois	1933
Democratic Conference Chairman	Joseph T. Robinson	Arkansas	1923

Position	Name	State	Since
Senate Minority Leader	Charles L. McNary	Oregon	1933
Senate Minority Whip	Felix Herbert	Rhode Island	1933
Republican Conference Chairman	Charles L. McNary	Oregon	1933

Position	Name	District	Since
Speaker of the House	Henry T. Rainey	Illinois 20th	1933
House Majority Leader	Joseph W. Byrns	Tennessee 5th	1933
House Majority Whip	Arthur H. Greenwood	Indiana 7th	1933
Democratic Caucus Chairman	Clarence F. Lea	California 1st	1933

Position	Name	District	Since
House Minority Leader	Bertrand H. Snell	New York 31st	1931
House Minority Whip	Harry L. Englebright	California 2nd	1933
Republican Conference Chairman	Robert Luce	Massachusetts 9th	1933

Senators are popularly elected statewide every two years, with one-third beginning new six year terms with each Congress. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election.

See also: Category: United States Senators

See also: Category: United States Congressional Delegations by state

Alabama

3. Hugo Black (Dem.)
2. John H. Bankhead II (Dem.)

Arizona

1. Henry F. Ashurst (Dem.)
3. Carl Hayden (Dem.)

Arkansas

2. Joseph Taylor Robinson (Dem.)
3. Hattie Carraway (Dem.)

California

1. Hiram Johnson (Rep.)
3. William G. McAdoo (Dem.)

Colorado

2. Edward P. Costigan (Dem.)
3. Alva B. Adams (Dem.)

Connecticut

1. Frederic C. Walcott (Rep.)
3. Augustine Lonergan (Dem.)

Delaware

2. Daniel O. Hastings (Rep.)
1. John G. Townsend, Jr. (Rep.)

Florida

3. Duncan U. Fletcher (Dem.)
1. Park Trammell (Dem.)

Georgia

2. Walter F. George (Dem.)
3. Richard B. Russell, Jr. (Dem.)

Idaho

2. William E. Borah (Rep.)
3. James P. Pope (Dem.)

Illinois

2. James H. Lewis (Dem.)
3. William H. Dieterich (Dem.)

Indiana

1. Arthur Raymond Robinson (Rep.)
3. Frederick Van Nuys (Dem.)

Iowa

2. L. J. Dickinson (Rep.)
3. Richard L. Murphy (Dem.)

Kansas

2. Arthur Capper (Rep.)
3. George McGill (Dem.)

Kentucky

3. Alben W. Barkley (Dem.)
2. Marvel M. Logan (Dem.)

Louisiana

2. Huey P. Long (Dem.)
3. John H. Overton (Dem.)

Maine

1. Frederick Hale (Rep.)
2. Wallace H. White, Jr. (Rep.)

Maryland

3. Millard E. Tydings (Dem.)
1. Phillips Lee Goldsborough (Rep.)

Massachusetts

1. David I. Walsh (Dem.)
2. Marcus A. Coolidge (Dem.)

Michigan

2. James Couzens (Rep.)
1. Arthur H. Vandenberg (Rep.)

Minnesota

1. Henrik Shipstead (FL)
2. Thomas D. Schall (Rep.)

Mississippi

2. Pat Harrison (Dem.)
1. Hubert D. Stephens (Dem.)

Missouri

1. Roscoe C. Patterson (Rep.)
3. Joel Bennett Clark (Dem.)

Montana

1. Burton K. Wheeler (Dem.)
2. John E. Erickson (Dem.), appointed to fill an unexpired term

2. James E. Murray (Dem.) elected to complete term

Nebraska

2. George W. Norris (Rep.)
1. Robert B. Howell (Rep.), died March 11, 1933

1. William H. Thompson (Dem.), appointed to fill vacancy

1. Richard C. Hunter (Dem.), elected to fill vacancy

Nevada

1. Key Pittman (Dem.)
3. Patrick A. McCarran (Dem.)

New Hampshire

2. Henry W. Keyes (Rep.)
3. Fred Brown (Dem.)

New Jersey

1. Hamilton F. Kean (Rep.)
2. Dwight W. Morrow (Rep.)

New Mexico

2. Sam G. Bratton (Dem.), resigned

2. Carl Hatch (Dem.), appointed to fill vacancy

1. Bronson M. Cutting (Rep.)

New York

1. Royal S. Copeland (Dem.)
3. Robert F. Wagner (Dem.)

North Carolina

2. Josiah William Bailey (Dem.)
3. Robert R. Reynolds (Dem.)

North Dakota

1. Lynn Frazier (Rep.)
3. Gerald P. Nye (Rep.)

Ohio

1. Simeon D. Fess (Rep.)
3. Robert J. Bulkley (Dem.)

Oklahoma

3. J. W. Elmer Thomas (Dem.)
2. Thomas P. Gore (Dem.)

Oregon

2. Charles L. McNary (Rep.)
3. Frederick Steiwer (Rep.)

Pennsylania

1. David A. Reed (Rep.)
3. James J. Davis (Rep.)

Rhode Island

2. Jesse H. Metcalf (Rep.)
1. Felix Hebert (Rep.)

South Carolina

3. Ellison D. Smith (Dem.)
2. James F. Byrnes (Dem.)

South Dakota

3. Peter Norbeck (Rep.)
2. William J. Bulow (Dem.)

Tennessee

1. Kenneth D. McKellar (Dem.)
2. Nathan Lynn Bachman (Dem.)

Texas

2. Morris Sheppard (Dem.)
1. Thomas T. Connally (Dem.)

Utah

1. William H. King (Dem.)
3. Elbert D. Thomas (Dem.)

Vermont

3. Porter H. Dale (Rep.), died October 6, 1933

3. Ernest W. Gibson (Rep.), appointed to fill vacancy

1. Warren R. Austin (Rep.)

Virginia

2. Carter Glass (Dem.)
1. Harry F. Byrd (Dem.)

Washington

1. Clarence C. Dill (Dem.)
3. Homer T. Bone (Dem.)

West Virginia

1. Henry D. Hatfield (Rep.)
2. Matthew M. Neely (Dem.)

Wisconsin

1. Robert M. La Follette, Jr. (Rep.)
3. F. Ryan Duffy (Dem.)

Wyoming

1. John B. Kendrick (Dem.), died November 3, 1933

1. Joseph C. O'Mahoney (Dem.), appointed to fill vacancy

2. Robert D. Carey (Rep.)

The names of members of the House of Representatives elected statewide at-large, are preceded by an "A/L," and the names of those elected from districts, whether plural or single member, are preceded by their district numbers.

Many of the congressional district numbers are linked to articles describing the district itself. Since the boundaries of the districts have changed often and substantially, the linked article may only describe the district as it exists today, and not as it was at the time of this Congress.

See also: Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives

See also: Category:United States Congressional Delegations by state

Alabama