The Second New Deal is a term used by historians to characterize the second stage, 1935–36, of the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The most famous laws included the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, the Banking Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Public Utility Holding Company Act, the Social Security Act, and the Wealth Tax Act.
In his address to Congress on 4 January 1935, Roosevelt called for five major goals: improved use of national resources, security against old age, unemployment and illness, slum clearance, and a national work relief program (the Works Progress Administration) to replace direct relief efforts. It included programs to redistribute wealth, income, and power in favor of the poor, the old, farmers and labor unions. The most important programs included Social Security, the National Labor Relations Act ("Wagner Act"), the Banking Act of 1935, rural electrification, and breaking up utility holding companies. The undistributed profits tax was only short-lived.
