[159]  He called for a special session of Congress on March 9, when Congress passed, almost sight unseen, the Emergency Banking Act.[159] The act, first developed by the Hoover administration and Wall Street bankers, gave the president the power to determine the opening and closing of banks and authorized the Federal Reserve Banks to issue banknotes.[160] The "first 100 Days" of the 73rd United States Congress saw an unprecedented amount of legislation and set a benchmark against which future presidents have been compared.[161][162] When the banks reopened on Monday, March 15, stock prices rose by 15 percent and in the following weeks over $1 billion was returned to bank vaults, ending the bank panic.[159] On March 22, Roosevelt signed the Cullen–Harrison Act, which brought Prohibition to a close.[163]

0:48  Collection of video clips of Roosevelt
Roosevelt saw the establishment of a number of agencies and measures designed to provide relief for the unemployed and others. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), under the leadership of Harry Hopkins, distributed relief to state governments.