# 76th United States Congress

The 76th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January 3, 1939, to January 3, 1941, during the seventh and eighth years of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1930 United States census.
Both chambers had a Democratic majority - holding a supermajority in the Senate, but a greatly reduced majority in the House, thus losing the supermajority there. With President Roosevelt, the Democrats maintained an overall federal government trifecta.
The 76th is also the most recent Congress to have held a third session.

## Major events

* April 9, 1939: African-American singer Marian Anderson performs before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after having been denied the use both of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and of a public high school by the federally controlled District of Columbia.
* August 2, 1939: Leo Szilard wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt about developing the atomic bomb using uranium. This led to the creation of the Manhattan Project.
* September 5, 1939: World War II: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.
* November 4, 1939: World War II: President Roosevelt ordered the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons to non-belligerent nations.
* November 15, 1939: President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
* April 1, 1940: April Fools' Day was also the census date for the 16th U.S. Census.
* May 16, 1940: World War II: President Roosevelt, addressed a joint session of Congress, asking for an extraordinary credit of approximately $900 million to finance construction of at least 50,000 airplanes per year.
* June 5, 1940: World War II: The United States Senate passes bill S4025 which allows the Department of Defense to sell outdated equipment to belligerents in wartime. In practice this allows the Roosevelt administration to sell certain navy vessels to Great Britain. The vote is watched closely by both the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany. The Nazis hope that the bill does not pass, the British hope that it will. The bill passes 67-18 in the United States Senate.
* June 10, 1940: World War II: President Roosevelt denounced Italy's actions with his "Stab in the Back" speech during the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.
* July 10, 1940: World War II: The United States Senate votes to confirm Frank Knox as Secretary of the Navy. The British hope he will be confirmed as he was openly sympathetic to them. Islationist Senators such as Burton K. Wheeler and Ellison D. Smith vote against the confirmation.
* August 4, 1940: World War II: Gen. John J. Pershing, in a nationwide radio broadcast, urges all-out aid to Britain in order to defend the Americas, while Charles Lindbergh speaks to an isolationist rally at Soldier Field in Chicago.
* September, 1940: The Army's 45th Infantry Division (previously a National Guard Division in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma), was activated and ordered into federal service for 1 year, to engage in a training program in Ft. Sill and Louisiana, prior to serving in World War II.
* September 2, 1940: World War II: An agreement between America and Great Britain was announced to the effect that 50 U.S. destroyers needed for escort work would be transferred to Great Britain. In return, America gained 99-year leases on British bases in the North Atlantic, West Indies and Bermuda.
* September 26, 1940: World War II: The United States imposed a total embargo on all scrap metal shipments to Japan.
* October 16, 1940: The draft registration of approximately 16 million men began in the United States.
* October 29, 1940: The Selective Service System lottery was held in Washington, D.C.
* November 5, 1940: U.S. presidential election, 1940: Democratic incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican challenger Wendell Willkie and became the United States's first and only third-term president.
* November 12, 1940: Case of Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940), decided, allowing a racially restrictive covenant to be lifted.
* December 17, 1940: President Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, first outlined his plan to send aid to Great Britain that will become known as Lend-Lease.
* December 29, 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a fireside chat to the nation, declared that the United States must become "the great arsenal of democracy."
* January 13, 1941: All persons born in Puerto Rico after this day were declared U.S. citizens by birth, through federal law 8 U.S.C. § 1402.
* January 20, 1941: Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swore in President Roosevelt for a third term.
* January 27, 1941: World War II: U.S. Ambassador to Japan Joseph C. Grew passed on to Washington a rumor overheard at a diplomatic reception about a planned surprise attack upon Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
* February 4, 1941: World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) was created to entertain American troops.

## Hearings

* January 23, 1941: Aviator Charles Lindbergh testified before the Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

## Major legislation

* April 3, 1939: Reorganization Act of 1939, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 76–19, 53 Stat. 561
* August 2, 1939: Hatch Act of 1939 ("Hatch Political Activity Act", "An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities"), ch. 410, 53 Stat. 1147
* November 4, 1939: Neutrality Act of 1939, ("Cash and Carry Act"), ch. 2, 54 Stat. 4
* June 29, 1940: Alien Registration Act (Smith Act), 3d sess. ch. 439, 54 Stat. 670
* August 22, 1940: Act of August 22, 1940, ch. 686, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 76–768, 54 Stat. 789 (including Investment Company Act of 1940, Investment Advisers Act of 1940)
* September 16, 1940: Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 76–783

## Party summary
### Senate

| | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Total | Vacant |
| | Democratic (D) | Farmer– Labor (FL) | Wisconsin Progressive (P) | Republican (R) | Independent (I) | Total | Vacant |
| End of previous congress | 74 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 96 | 0 |
| Begin | 69 | 2 | 1 | 23 | 1 | 96 | 0 |
| End | 68 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 1 | 96 | 0 |
| Final voting share | 70.8% | 1.0% | 1.0% | 26.0% | 1.0% | | |
| Beginning of next congress | 66 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 1 | 95 | 1 |

### House of Representatives

| | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Total | Vacant |
| | Democratic (D) | Farmer– Labor (FL) | American Labor (AL) | Wisconsin Progressive (WP) | Republican (R) | Other (O) | Total | Vacant |
| End of previous congress | 324 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 89 | 1 | 426 | 9 |
| Begin | 260 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 169 | 1 | 434 | 1 |
| End | 256 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 167 | 1 | 428 | 7 |
| Final voting share | 59.8% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 39.0% | 0.2% | | |
| Beginning of next congress | 268 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 162 | 0 | 435 | 0 |

## Leadership
### Senate

* President: John N. Garner (D)
* President pro tempore: Key Pittman (D), until November 10, 1940 (died)
** William H. King (D), from November 19, 1940

#### Majority (Democratic) leadership

* Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley
* Majority Whip: Sherman Minton
* Democratic Caucus Secretary: Joshua B. Lee

#### Minority (Republican) leadership

* Minority Leader: Charles McNary
* Republican Conference Secretary: Frederick Hale
* National Senatorial Committee Chair: John G. Townsend Jr.

### House of Representatives

* Speaker: William B. Bankhead (D), until September 15, 1940 (died)
** Sam Rayburn (D), from September 16, 1940

#### Majority (Democratic) leadership

* Majority Leader: Sam Rayburn, until September 16, 1940
** John W. McCormack, from September 16, 1940
* Democratic Whip: Patrick J. Boland
* Democratic Caucus Chairman: John W. McCormack, until September 16, 1940
* Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: Patrick H. Drewry

#### Minority (Republican) leadership

* Minority Leader: Joseph William Martin Jr.
* Republican Whip: Harry Lane Englebright
* Republican Conference Chairman: Roy O. Woodruff
* Republican Campaign Committee Chairman: J. William Ditter

## Members
### Senate

Senators were popularly elected statewide 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 ended with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1940; Class 2 meant their term began in the last Congress, requiring reelection in 1942; and Class 3 meant their term began in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1944.

### House of Representatives

The names of members are preceded by their district numbers.

## Changes in membership

The count below reflects changes from the beginning of this Congress.

### House of Representatives
## Committees

Lists of committees and their party leaders for members of the House and Senate committees can be found through the Official Congressional Directory at the bottom of this article. The directory after the pages of terms of service lists committees of the Senate, House (Standing with Subcommittees, Select and Special) and Joint and, after that, House/Senate committee assignments. On the committees section of the House and Senate in the Official Congressional Directory, the committee's members on the first row on the left side shows the chairman of the committee and on the right side shows the ranking member of the committee.

### Joint committees

* Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
* Disposition of (Useless) Executive Papers
* Eradication of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly
* Forestry
* The Library (Chairman: Sen. Alben W. Barkley)
* To Investigate Phosphate Resource of the United States (Chairman: N/A; Vice Chairman: Rep. J. Hardin Peterson)
* Printing (Chairman: N/A; Vice Chairman: Sen. Carl Hayden)
* Taxation (Chairman: Rep. Robert L. Doughton; Vice Chairman: Sen. Pat Harrison)
* Tennessee Valley Authority (Chairman: Sen. A. Victor Donahey; Vice Chairman: N/A)

## Caucuses

* Democratic (House)
* Democratic (Senate)

## Employees
### Legislative branch agency directors

* Architect of the Capitol: David Lynn
* Attending Physician of the United States Congress: George Calver
* Comptroller General of the United States: vacant, until April 11, 1939
** Fred H. Brown, April 11, 1939 - June 19, 1940
** vacant, June 19, 1940 - November 1, 1940
** Lindsay C. Warren, from November 1, 1940
* Librarian of Congress: Herbert Putnam, until 1939
** Archibald MacLeish, from 1939
* Public Printer of the United States: Augustus E. Giegengack

### Senate

* Chaplain: ZeBarney Thorne Phillips (Episcopal)
* Parliamentarian: Charles Watkins
* Secretary for the Majority: Leslie Biffle
* Secretary for the Minority: Carl A. Loeffler
* Secretary: Edwin A. Halsey
* Librarian: Ruskin McArdle
* Sergeant at Arms: Chesley W. Jurney

### House of Representatives

* Chaplain: James Shera Montgomery (Methodist)
* Clerk: South Trimble
* Parliamentarian: Lewis Deschler
* Postmaster: Finis E. Scott
* Doorkeeper: Joseph J. Sinnott
* Reading Clerks: Roger M. Calloway (D) and Alney E. Chaffee (R)
* Sergeant at Arms: Kenneth Romney

## In popular culture

* It appears in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.