National Industrial Recovery Act
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Image:Blue eagle.jpg The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of June 16, 1933, part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, was a set of United States federal laws and codes that authorized the President to regulate businesses in the interests of promoting "fair" competition, supporting (that is, raising) prices and wages, creating jobs for unemployed workers, and stimulating the United States economy to recover from the Great Depression. The law created a National Recovery Administration (NRA), an executive agency exercising powers which Congress had delegated to it, to promote compliance on the part of corporations. Firms which voluntarily complied could display the Blue Eagle.
The NIRA was strongly supported by heads of industry (some of which had helped draft the legislation). Gerald Swope, head of General Electric, was one of the first champions of this legislation, which legalized cartels and encouraged government spending on public works (which, not coincidentally, resulted in increased business for GE).
The NIRA was overturned on May 27, 1935 when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the case A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (295 U.S. 495) (sometimes called the "sick chicken" case) that the Act infringed upon states' authority, unreasonably stretched the Commerce Clause, and gave legislative powers to the executive branch, violating the Nondelegation doctrine.
There is controversy over the effectiveness of this act. While it is easy to point to regions, businesses, and industries that benefitted, in some areas it was not successful in achieving its stated goals on a national level.Template:Cite needed
Section 7a dealt with labor issues and later found its way into the Wagner Act.