When people think of the origins of American social policy,
they usually think of the 1935 Social Security Act, part of Franklin
D. Roosevelt's second New Deal. That legislation created both
old-age insurance, now commonly known as social security, and
Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), recently known as welfare. Though
central to today's social policy, these programs were somewhat
marginal to New Deal social policy because they dealt with special
categories of “unemployable” citizens. The key concern
of New Deal social policymakers was instead with those deemed
“employable,” and their problems were addressed
mainly by another and much less studied program from the second
New Deal: the “Works Program” operated mainly by
the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The lack of attention to
the WPA has had important consequences for understandings of
American social policy.