Congress also instituted farm relief, tightened banking and finance regulations, and founded the Tennessee Valley Authority (New Deal 1993). These various organizations were all designed to improve the social and economic situations Americans faced during this period in United States history. The banking industry was the first focus of Roosevelt's administration. .
Banks had been closing all over the country due to frightened citizens withdrawing all of their money. In order to increase trust in the banking system, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933. The bill gave the president broad powers over financial transactions, prohibited the hoarding of gold, and allowed for the reopening of sound banks, sometimes with loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (Nash and Jefferey et al 777). It also passed the Banking Act of 1933, which strengthened the Federal Reserve System, established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and insured individual deposits up to $5,000 (777). These legislative acts encouraged the public to once again trust their banks, and to deposit their money back in them instead of hiding it at home in or under the proverbial mattress. The allowance for insurance limits was increased greatly, later on, as a direct result of this regained trust and the consequentially larger sums of money being reintroduced into the banking system. .
With this new trust in banks being established, the focus was turned to the common household and farmers. The Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Home Owners" Loan Corporation were both formed to help farmers and other households with paying their burdensome mortgages. This form of aid would also be instrumental in helping the mortgage-holding banks to stay in business. The Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act was aimed at helping to save farms from going under due to bank foreclosure. Along with postponing final foreclosure for three years, allowing for potential recovery from foreclosure, this legislative act also made provisions for moving farmers from land with poor soil and poor production potential to good farming areas.
