Franklin D. Roosevelt

Report on the Public Works Administration Program.

September 30, 1938

TODAY the Public Works Administration met the first of three dead lines fixed for its present program by Congress, and Administrator Ickes has given me a brief report on progress which shows:

1. In the 101 days since I signed the 1938 PWA Act on June 21, communities all over the country have filed close to 10,000 applications for PWA improvements, volunteering to assess themselves 55 per cent of the cost to become partners with the Federal Government in the program.

2. No more applications can be accepted after today under the law. Fears expressed early in the summer that cities and States would not volunteer sufficient funds to carry out the program have been proven unfounded. The response has been so eager that we have received double the number of worth-while projects we can care for.

3. Close to 7,000 projects, both Federal and non-Federal, have received allotments with my approval and are proceeding. Virtually all funds have been already allotted to eligible projects and a comparatively small balance still is available for projects (less than $100,000,000 which is being allotted out).

4. The next deadline fixed by Congress is January 1, 1939, and by that date construction must start. Although that deadline is still three months away, the program has been expedited to such an extent that over 1,000 projects are already under construction with dirt flying and walls rising.

5. The third and last deadline fixed by Congress is July 1, 1940, when the projects of the present program are to be completed. Administrator Ickes has required each body to which an allotment was made to contract to finish the work undertaken by that date.

The report shows that although the present program is the largest undertaken in such a limited time by PWA, the program is now operating successfully on a fast timetable and the recovery effects of the program are already being registered, not only by permanent public improvements but also by construction and materials production employment.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Report on the Public Works Administration Program. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/209227

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