collective bargaining and helped spur major union organizing drives in major industries. In case consumer buying power lagged behind, thereby defeating the administration's initiatives, the NIRA created the Public Works Administration (PWA), a major program of public works spending designed to alleviate unemployment, and moreover to transfer funds to certain beneficiaries. The NIRA established the most important, but ultimately least successful provision: a new federal agency known as the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which attempted to stabilize prices and wages through cooperative "code authorities" involving government, business, and labor. The NIRA was seen hailed as a miracle, responding to the needs of labor, business, unemployment, and the deflation crisis. The "sick chicken case" led to the Supreme Court invalidating NIRA in 1935. Second Session March 24, 1934: The Tydings–McDuffie Act (, ) provided for self-government for the Commonwealth of the Philippines and a pathway to independence. June 6, 1934: The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (ch. 404, ) grew out of the Securities Act of 1933 and regulated participation in financial markets. June 6, 1934: The National Firearms Act of 1934 (ch. 757, ) regulated machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns. June 19, 1934: Communications Act of 1934 (ch. 652, , ) Constitutional amendments December 5, 1933: Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, repealing the eighteenth amendment and thus ending prohibition in the United States, was ratified by the requisite number of states (then 36) to become part of the Constitution Hearings "Merchants of Death" Committee: United States Senate Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry Chairman: Senator Gerald P. Nye (R) Duration: September 4, 1934 – February 24, 1936 The Senate Munitions Committee came into existence solely for the purpose of this hearing. Although World War I had been over for sixteen years, there were revived reports that America's leading munition companies had effectively influenced the United States into that conflict, which killed 53,000 Americans, hence the companies' nickname "Merchants of Death". The Democratic Party, controlling the Senate for the first time since the first world war, used the hype of these reports to organize the hearing in hopes of nationalizing America's munitions industry. The Democrats chose a Republican renowned for his ardent isolationist policies, Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, to head the hearing. Nye was typical of western agrarian progressives, and adamantly opposed America's involvement in any foreign war. Nye declared at the opening