The Seventy-second United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1931 to March 4, 1933, during the last two years of Herbert C. Hoover's presidency. The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the Thirteenth Decennial Census of the United States in 1910. The Senate had a Republican majority, and the House had a Democratic majority.
Ongoing: Great Depression
January 12, 1932: Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas became the first woman elected to the United States Senate. (Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia had been appointed to fill a vacancy in 1922; the 87-year-old Felton served one day as a Senator.) Caraway had won a special election to fill the remaining months of the term of her late husband, Senator Thaddeus Caraway. She won re-election to a full term in 1932 and again in 1938 and served in the Senate until January 1945.
July 28, 1932: Bonus Army was dispersed.
November 8, 1932: United States elections, 1932:
United States presidential election, 1932: Incumbent Republicans Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis lost to Democrats Franklin Roosevelt as President, and John Nance Garner as Vice President.
United States Senate elections, 1932: Democrats gained 12 seats for a 59–36 majority.
United States House of Representatives elections, 1932: Democrats gained 97 seats for a 313–117 majority.
January 22, 1932: Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act, Sess. 1, ch. 8, 47 Stat. 5
March 23, 1932: Norris-LaGuardia Act, Sess. 1, ch. 90, 47 Stat. 70
June 6, 1932: Revenue Act of 1932, Sess. 1, ch. 209, 47 Stat. 169
July 22, 1932: Federal Home Loan Bank Act, Sess. 1, ch. 522, 47 Stat. 725
March 3, 1933: Buy American Act, Sess. 2, ch. 212, title III, 47 Stat. 1520
Patman Bonus Bill
February 20, 1933: 21st Amendment, to repeal prohibition, was proposed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.
The count below identifies party affiliations at the beginning of the first session of this Congress, and includes members from vacancies and newly admitted states, when they were first seated. Changes resulting from subsequent replacements are shown below in the "Changes in membership" section.
President: Charles Curtis (R)
President pro tempore: George H. Moses (R)
Majority Leader: James E. Watson (R)
Majority Whip: Simeon D. Fess (R)
Republican Conference Secretary: Frederick Hale
Minority Leader: Joseph T. Robinson (D)
Minority Whip: Morris Sheppard (D)
Democratic Caucus Secretary: Hugo Black
Republican Nicholas Longworth had served as Speaker in the previous Congress. He would have been re-elected as Speaker in this Congress had the House convened in March 1931, when Republicans had a tiny 3-seat majority. By December 7, 1931, when the first session of the Congress began, Democrats gained enough seats through deaths and special elections to take control and elect one of their own as Speaker. Longworth himself died on April 9, 1931, during this time between the beginning of the Congress and its first session.
Speaker: John N. Garner (D)
Majority Leader: Henry T. Rainey (D)
Majority Whip: John McDuffie (D)
Democratic Caucus Chairman: William W. Arnold
Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: Joseph W. Byrns Sr.
Minority Leader: Bertrand H. Snell (R)
Minority Whip: Carl G. Bachmann (R)
Republican Conference Chair: Willis C. Hawley
This list is arranged by chamber, then by state. Senators are listed by class, and Representatives are listed by district.
Senators were elected every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election. In this Congress, Class 1 meant their term began in the last Congress, requiring reelection in 1934; Class 2 meant their term began with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1936; and Class 3 meant their term ended with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1932.
The names of members of the House of Representatives elected statewide on the general ticket or otherwise at-large, are preceded by an "At-large," and the names of those elected from districts, whether plural or single member, are preceded by their district numbers.
Replacements: 8
No net gains for either party
Deaths: 6
Resignations: 3
Interim appointments: 4
Total seats with changes: 11
replacements: 23
Democratic: 6 seat net gain
Republican: 6 seat net loss
Deaths: 24
Resignations: 7
Contested election: 1
Total seats with changes: 32
Lists of committees and their party leaders.
Agriculture and Forestry
Air Mail and Ocean Mail Contracts (Special)
Alaska Railroad (Special Select)
Appropriations
Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate
Banking and Currency
Campaign Expenditures (Select)
Civil Service
Claims
Commerce
Depreciation of Foreign Currencies (Select)
District of Columbia
Education and Labor
Enrolled Bills
Expenditures in Executive Departments
Immigration
Immigration and Naturalization
Finance
Foreign Relations
Indian Affairs
Interoceanic Canals
Interstate Commerce
Judiciary
Library
Manufactures
Military Affairs
Mines and Mining
Mississippi Flood Control Project (Select)
Naval Affairs
Patents
Pensions
Post Office Leases (Select)
Post Office and Post Roads
Printing
Privileges and Elections
Public Buildings and Grounds
Public Lands and Surveys
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (Select)
Rules
Senatorial Campaign of 1930 (Select)
Territories and Insular Affairs
Unemployment Insurance
Whole
Wildlife Resources (Special)
Accounts
Agriculture
Appropriations
Banking and Currency
Census
Civil Service
Claims
Coinage, Weights and Measures
Disposition of Executive Papers
District of Columbia
Education
Election of the President, Vice President and Representatives in Congress
Elections
Enrolled Bills
Expenditures in the Executive Departments
Flood Control
Foreign Affairs
Immigration and Naturalization
Indian Affairs
Insular Affairs
Interstate and Foreign Commerce
Invalid Pensions
Irrigation and Reclamation
Labor
Memorials
Merchant Marine and Fisheries
Military Affairs
Mines and Mining
Naval Affairs
Patents
Pensions
Post Office and Post Roads
Public Buildings and Grounds
Public Lands
Revision of Laws
Rivers and Harbors
Roads
Rules
Standards of Official Conduct
Territories
War Claims
Ways and Means
Whole
Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
Disposition of (Useless) Executive Papers
The Library
Taxation
Veterans' Affairs
Architect of the Capitol: David Lynn
Attending Physician of the United States Congress: George Calver
Comptroller General of the United States: John R. McCarl
Librarian of Congress: Herbert Putnam
Public Printer of the United States: George H. Carter
Chaplain: ZeBarney T. Phillips (Episcopalian)
Secretary: Edwin P. Thayer
Sergeant at Arms: David S. Barry
Democratic Party Secretary: Edwin A. Halsey
Republican Party Secretary: Carl A. Loeffler
Chaplain: James S. Montgomery (Methodist)
Clerk: South Trimble
Doorkeeper: Joseph J. Sinnott
Parliamentarian: Lewis Deschler
Postmaster: Finis E. Scott
Sergeant at Arms: Kenneth Romney
