A panel discussion was held on the historical impact of the infrastructure programs of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Rural Electrification Administration, (REA). Topics included current efforts to document and preserve New Deal projects, and the lessons that can be learned from these programs. After presentations were made, the panelists responded to questions from members of the audience in the room and on the Internet. Stuart Shinske moderated.
The panel included: Nick Taylor, author of American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA" When FDR Put the Nation to Work; Gray Brechin, project scholar of “The California Living New Deal Project;” and D. Clayton Brown, author of Electricity for Rural America: The Fight for the REA and Army Engineers in the Sunbelt.
“The Works Progress Administration and the Rural Electrification Administration” was the second in the series of public forums, “1935 and the Enduring New Deal,” held in honor of the 75th anniversary of the enactment of those and other social programs at the FDR Presidential Library, co-sponsored by the Roosevelt Institute.