Social Security Act

Common card · No. 206167

The Social Security Act of 1935 is a law enacted by the 74th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. The law created the Social Security program as well as insurance against unemployment. The law was part of Roosevelt's New Deal domestic program. By 1930, the United States was one of the few industrialized countries without any national social security system. Amid the Great Depression, the physician Francis Townsend galvanized support behind a proposal to issue direct payments to older people. Responding to that movement, Roosevelt organized a committee led by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins to develop a major social welfare program proposal. Roosevelt presented the plan in early 1935 and signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935. The Supreme Court upheld the act in two major cases decided in 1937. The law established the Social Security program. The old-age program is offset by payroll taxes, and over the...

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