Agricultural Adjustment Act

New Deal program to restore agricultural prosperity in the United States during the Great Depression

The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era. it was designed to raise agricultural prices by having fewer surpluses. The Government bought livestock to kill, and they paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land. The money for these subsidies was generated through a tax on companies which processed farm products. The Act created a new agency, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to oversee the distribution of the subsidies.[2][3][4]

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Great Seal of the United States
Other short titles
  • Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933
  • The Farm Relief Bill
Long titleAn Act to relieve the existing national economic emergency by increasing agricultural purchasing power, to raise revenue for extraordinary expenses incurred by reason of such emergency, to provide emergency relief with respect to agricultural indebtedness, to provide for the orderly liquidation of joint-stock land banks, and for other purposes.
Enacted bythe 73rd United States Congress
EffectiveMay 12, 1933
Citations
Public law73-10
Statutes at Large48 Stat. 31
Codification
Titles amended7 U.S.C.: Agriculture
U.S.C. sections created7 U.S.C. ch. 26 § 601 et seq.
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as H.R. 3835
  • Passed the House on March 22, 1933 (315-98)
  • Passed the Senate on April 28, 1933 (64-20)
  • Reported by the joint conference committee on May 10, 1933; agreed to by the House on May 10, 1933 (passed) and by the Senate on May 10, 1933 (53-28)
  • Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 12, 1933[1]
United States Supreme Court cases
United States v. Butler

References

change
  1. Rasmussen, Wayne D., Gladys L. Baker, and James S. Ward, "A Short History of Agricultural Adjustment, 1933-75." Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 391 (March 1976), pg. 2.
  2. Agricultural Adjustment Act, Pub.L. 73-10, 48 Stat. 31, enacted May 12, 1933.
  3. Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Statement on Signing the Farm Relief Bill" May 12, 1933". The American Presidency Project. University of California – Santa Barbara. Retrieved July 4, 2013.
  4. Hurt, R. Douglas, Problems of Plenty: The American Farmer in the Twentieth Century, (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002), 69.

Other websites

change