Republican President Herbert Hoover had made numerous attempts to get a Federal relief bill through the Democratic congress to the ailing citizenry, but Congress disagreed how the funds were to be distributed. At last an agreement was made during the Summer of 1932 and the Emergency Relief and Construction Act was passed into law.
"The obnoxious features which had been injected into the legislation from time to time by Members of the House of Representatives and had so long delayed action, have been eliminated. The $100 million charity feature has been abandoned. The pork-barrel infection that the loans to the States for relief of distress should be based upon population instead of need has been eliminated and also the sum of $1,300 million nonproductive public works, ultimately payable by the taxpayer, has been reduced to $322 million of which about $120 million are advances to the States for highways and most of the balance is not to be expanded if the necessities of. the Federal Treasury prevent it."
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