 In the 1946 elections, Republicans wrested control of both houses of Congress from the Democrats for the first time since the Great Depression and gained control of the majority of state governments.The power of labor unions had expanded under Roosevelt and the Democrats, and when a 1946 railroad worker strike exacerbated a post-war recession the Republican majorities – over Barkley's objection – curbed union power via the Taft–Hartley Act.They also passed the Twenty-second Amendment, limiting the president to two terms, a posthumous slap at Roosevelt.