A group of government programs and policies established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s; the New Deal was designed to improve conditions for persons suffering in the Great Depression. The projects of the New Deal included the Social Security System, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Works Progress Administration.
Note: The New Deal remains controversial. Some have criticized it as too expensive and have called it an inadvisable expansion of federal control over the American economy. Others have insisted that the New Deal was an appropriate response to desperate conditions and produced programs of continuing value.