Wagner–Rogers Bill

The Wagner–Rogers Bill was proposed United States legislation which would have increased the quota of immigrants by bringing a total of 20,000 Jewish children (there was no sectarian criteria) under the age of 14 (10,000 in 1939, and another 10,000 in 1940) to the United States from Nazi Germany. The bill was sponsored by Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Edith Rogers (R-Mass.) in the wake of the 1938 Kristallnacht attacks on Jews in Germany. The bill had widespread support among religious and labor groups, but was opposed by nationalist organizations. It never came to a vote because it was blocked by Senator Robert Rice Reynolds of North Carolina, who held a powerful position because of his seniority. Reynolds was an anti-Semite and Anglophobe who was among those whose support President Roosevelt needed for American rearmament.