Social and Domestic

Policy

• Business• Consumer

Protection• Labor• Agriculture• Environment

• Public Assistance

• Education• Housing

Business

Promoting and Protecting Business• Tariffs and quotas protect American industries

• In recent years federal gov’t has promoted free trade moreo NAFTA - promotion of free trade between Canada, Mexico & US

• Federal Subsidieso Tax deductions, low interest rate loans, direct cash payments

• Small Business Administration (SBA) – agency aids development, funding of small business

Regulation • Gov’t took Laissez-faire approach until Progressivism

• Eventually gov’t plays bigger role in economy o anti-trust laws etc.

Consumer Protection

• Product of the Progressive Era - establishment of agencies and laws designed to protect consumers from bad business practices

• Pure Food & Drug Act

• Meat Inspection Act

• Food & Drug Administration (FDA) – contaminated or mislabeled food or drugs

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - false ads, sales fraud

• Consumer Product Safety Commission - protection from faulty products

• Security & Exchange Commission (SEC) - protection, insurance for our money, stocks

Labor

• Laws set minimum wages, maximum hours and prohibit child labor.

• Department of Labor – employment offices, job training programs, unemployment insurance

• Time where unions had most support was during the Great Depression

• National Labor Relations Board - protects workers and makes employers have to negotiate with unions, not penalize workers for being in union

• Gov’t has continued to regulate union activity as needed

Talk to your neighbor:

How does the Federal gov’t

1)promote and regulate business?

2) protect consumers?

3) support and regulate labor?

Agriculture & Environment

Agriculture

• Department of Agriculture - works with farmers to modernize agricultural methods, promotes agricultural trade, end hunger in the U.S. and abroad

• During the Great Depression gov’t paid farmers to produce less and provided loans to farmers

Environment

• EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) - regulations over business

• 1990 Clean Air Act – mandated reductions in emissions

• Kyoto Protocol - international agreement to improve emissions, ratified by Congress, but not enforced by Pres G. W.Bush

• Water Pollution Policies – regulates discharge of harmful materials into the water

• Unfunded mandates - halts some fed gov’t regulations

Public Assistance• New Deal programs - fed gov takes on

responsibility of social welfare

• Social Security - employer and employees contribute, claim benefits once eligible

• Medicare - pays share of hospital expenses for senior citizens with optional policy for dr visits, prescriptions, etc.

• Unemployment Insurance - federal and state gov offer aid to those who are out of work, eligible if dismissed from job

• Food Stamps - helps to get food for low-income families

• Medicaid - medical bill assistance for low-income people

• The need for reform

Education & Housing

Public Education • Guidelines established by state, schools run by local school

districts• Fed gov does grant billions in aid to public schools (K-12 and

college)• Some states do not want the aid because they do not want fed

intervention in education • Federal programs (ie NCLB) designed to improve student test

performance and overall status of U.S. education in the world, ties funding to test scores

Housing• Laws passed to help Americans purchase and keep homes• Federal Housing Administration (FHA) - guarantees

banks/lenders against losses on loans to low income families• Urban renewal - focused on rebuilding, cleaning up cities• Public Housing - aid to local cities to provide low-income housing

Talk to your neighbor:

How does the federal gov’t

1) promote agriculture and environmental protection?

2) assist the public?

3) regulate housing and education?