ABSTRACT
When the lame-duck session of the 72d Congress convened in December 1932, its leaders lacked a program, were reluctant to follow President Herbert Hoover, and were uncertain about the intentions of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Senate approved the Glass banking reform bill in January 1933, but the House Banking and Currency Committee never acted on it. The Steagall deposit insurance measure, passed by the House in May 1932, never received the Senate committee’s support. The session’s only substantive bank legislation empowered the comptroller of the currency to extend to national banks all privileges held by state banks. This allowed national banks to close whenever local or state authorities declared a bank “holiday."
