InsideGov

President

Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd president · Democrat

March 4, 1933 – April 11, 1945

About

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving US president and the only one to have served more than two terms.

From Wikipedia (text may be abridged), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

12 years, 1 monthIn office4,422 days
—Major laws signedLandmark laws below
8Justices appointedplus one elevated to chief

Who held power

Party control of Congress

Democrats held both chambers of Congress throughout the time in office.

  • 79th Congress1945House: Dem.244 D · 189 R · 2 otherSenate: Dem.57 D · 38 R · 1 other
  • 78th Congress1943–1945House: Dem.222 D · 209 R · 4 otherSenate: Dem.57 D · 38 R · 1 other
  • 77th Congress1941–1943House: Dem.267 D · 162 R · 6 otherSenate: Dem.66 D · 28 R · 2 other
  • 76th Congress1939–1941House: Dem.262 D · 169 R · 4 otherSenate: Dem.69 D · 23 R · 4 other
  • 75th Congress1937–1939House: Dem.334 D · 88 R · 13 otherSenate: Dem.76 D · 16 R · 4 other
  • 74th Congress1935–1937House: Dem.322 D · 103 R · 10 otherSenate: Dem.69 D · 25 R · 2 other
  • 73rd Congress1933–1935House: Dem.313 D · 117 R · 5 otherSenate: Dem.59 D · 36 R · 1 other
Data notes

Each Congress is clipped to the days this president was in office; one that convened less than a month before the president left is left out. A chamber’s majority is the party that held it for most of those days; seat counts are at the start of the Congress, with independents counted with the party they caucused with. From the House and Senate historians’ party divisions.

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Timeline →

Supreme Court appointments

Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed 8 justices and elevated one: Black (1937), Reed (1938), Frankfurter (1939), Douglas (1939), Murphy (1940), Jackson (1941), Byrnes (1941), Stone (elevated to chief justice, 1941) and Rutledge (1943).

  • Wiley Rutledge · Associate justiceNominated Jan 11, 1943 · confirmed by voice vote
  • Harlan Stone · Elevated to chief justiceNominated Jun 12, 1941 · confirmed by voice vote
  • James Byrnes · Associate justiceNominated Jun 12, 1941 · confirmed by voice vote
  • Robert Jackson · Associate justiceNominated Jun 12, 1941 · confirmed by voice vote
  • Frank Murphy · Associate justiceNominated Jan 4, 1940 · confirmed by voice vote
  • William Douglas · Associate justiceNominated Mar 20, 1939 · confirmed 62–4
  • Felix Frankfurter · Associate justiceNominated Jan 5, 1939 · confirmed by voice vote
  • Stanley Reed · Associate justiceNominated Jan 15, 1938 · confirmed by voice vote
  • Hugo Black · Associate justiceNominated Aug 12, 1937 · confirmed 63–16
Data notes

A justice counts for the president who nominated them (a recess appointment from the day it began, if earlier). An associate justice later made chief by another president, like William Rehnquist, counts as an elevation for the second. Failed and withdrawn nominations are not listed. Dates and Senate votes from the Federal Judicial Center.

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Supreme Court →

Laws and orders

Landmark laws signed

22 landmark laws signed in Roosevelt's time in office, newest first. Mayhew's lists of important enactments start in 1947, so this is the Timeline page's hand-picked list, not a count.

Data notes

The laws picked as landmarks for the Timeline page, each with the year it was signed and a link to its Wikipedia article. It is an editorial list, not a count: David Mayhew’s lists of important enactments, which the other presidents’ pages use, start with the 80th Congress in 1947, so the 1933–46 laws have no list to count from and no law pages or vote tallies on this site.

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Timeline page →

Economy

Federal deficit and debt

The federal budget balance, as a share of GDP, was −5.4% in FY1934 and −20.9% in FY1945, with a high of −0.1% in FY1938.

Budget balance, % of GDP

FY1934 −5.4% → FY1945 −20.9%
Data notes

The budget balance is the federal surplus (above zero) or deficit (below) as a share of GDP, by fiscal year (July to June through 1976, October to September since); a year counts for the president in office for most of it, though its budget was usually passed the year before. Debt is total public debt as a share of GDP, quarterly from 1966, including debt the government holds in its own trust funds.

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View as table
Budget balance, % of GDP
PeriodValue
FY1934−5.4%
FY1935−3.8%
FY1936−5.1%
FY1937−2.4%
FY1938−0.1%
FY1939−3%
FY1940−2.8%
FY1941−3.8%
FY1942−12.4%
FY1943−26.9%
FY1944−21.2%
FY1945−20.9%
Economy →
Data notes

Each card takes a series from one of the site’s Presidency, Congress or Supreme Court pages and shows only the time Roosevelt was in office. Monthly figures run from the month of the inauguration to the month the term ended; a fiscal or calendar year counts for the president who held office for most of its days. Cards whose data begins after 1933 say where it starts, and a card with no data for the term is left out.

These are conditions during a presidency, not a scorecard. Congress, the courts, the Federal Reserve, the business cycle and events abroad move every one of these numbers, and many policies take effect years after they are signed, so a change during a term is not a measure of what the president caused.

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Source: the site’s Presidency, Congress and Supreme Court data, each named in its card’s Data notes; party control of Congress from the House and Senate historians; appointments from the Federal Judicial Center. Portrait: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Built October 20, 2026.