determine which financial institutions were viable. After the bank holiday, all financially sound banks would resume business. For persons who were unable to access their accounts, another part of the act authorized the executive branch to reorganize failed banks in order to free up frozen assets. The RFC was empowered to invest financial institution through their preferred stocks. Seventy percent of America's banks reopened after just six days. Jones's task as the new chair of the RFC was to reopen another 2,000 banks. He began with the reorganization of two of Detroit's largest banks by collaborating with Alfred P. Sloan of General Motors. They formed a new bank with matching investments from the RFC and General Motors, but more significantly, the RFC covered the deposits of the 800,000 frozen accounts from both failed banks with a loan of $230 million (). In the first three years of the Roosevelt Administration, the RFC had issued $8 billion in loans; however, these outflows were offset by $3.5 billion in revenues, including interest payments and repayments of principal. In 1939, Roosevelt appointed Jones to be the new Federal Loan Administrator while taking away his title as RFC chair. Secretary of Commerce President Woodrow Wilson offered Jones the position of United States Secretary of Commerce, but Jones decided instead to remain in Houston and focus on his businesses. He accepted the same position from President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, and he served until 1945. However, according to Stephen Fenberg, Roosevelt offered him the cabinet position to bring him closer to the White House and rein in his power. This tactic did not work because Jones accepted the new post while retaining his old job as Federal Loan Administrator. Jones was also on a short list to serve as Roosevelt's running mate in 1940. Though the nomination for the vice-presidency had been decided by the Democratic convention delegates in previous election cycles, the decisions at the 1940 convention in Chicago were being manipulated by the President. Roosevelt rejected Jones as a running mate because he considered him to be too conservative to properly serve his agenda. Exit from Washington Henry Wallace was dropped from the ticket as Vice President in 1944. Roosevelt was reelected and asked Jones to resign as Secretary of Commerce, which he did on January 21, 1945. The next day he resigned from RFC and all other government positions. Jones released