Editing Public Works Administration (section)

==Criticism==
The PWA spent over $6 billion but did not succeed in returning the level of industrial activity to pre-Depression levels.<ref name="Roosevelt1985">{{Cite book |last=Roosevelt |first=Franklin Delano |title=Franklin D. Roosevelt: His Life and Times : an Encyclopedic View |publisher=G.K. Hall |year=1985 |isbn=9780816186679 |editor-last=Graham |editor-first=Otis L. |pages=336–337 |editor-last2=Wander |editor-first2=Meghan Robinson}}</ref><ref name="Leuchtenburg1963">{{Cite book |last=Leuchtenburg |first=William E. |title=Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: 1932-1940 |publisher=Harper Perennial |year=1963 |isbn=9780061836961 |pages=133–134 |language=en }}</ref> Though successful in many aspects, it has been acknowledged that the PWA's objective of constructing a substantial number of quality, affordable housing units was a major failure.<ref name="Roosevelt1985" /><ref name="Leuchtenburg1963" /> Some have argued that because Roosevelt was opposed to deficit spending, there was not enough money spent to help the PWA achieve its housing goals.<ref name="Roosevelt1985" /><ref name="Leuchtenburg1963" />

Reeves (1973) argues that Roosevelt's competitive theory of administration proved to be inefficient and produced delays. The competition over the size of expenditure, the selection of the administrator, and the appointment of staff at the state level, led to delays and the ultimate failure of PWA as a recovery instrument. As director of the budget, [[Lewis Douglas]] overrode the views of leading senators in reducing appropriations to $3.5 billion and in transferring much of that money to other agencies instead of their own specific appropriations. The cautious and penurious Ickes won out over the more imaginative [[Hugh S. Johnson]] as chief of public works administration. Political competition between rival [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] state organizations and between Democrats and [[Progressive Republican]]s led to delays in implementing PWA efforts on the local level. Ickes instituted quotas for hiring skilled and unskilled black people in construction financed through the PWA. Resistance from employers and unions was partially overcome by negotiations and implied sanctions. Although results were ambiguous, the plan helped provide African Americans with employment, especially among unskilled workers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kruman |first=Marc W. |year=1975 |title=Quotas for blacks: The public works administration and the black construction worker |journal=Labor History |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=37–51 |doi=10.1080/00236567508584321}}</ref>