*Party division totals are based on election day results.
After 14 Members-elect died between Election Day 1930 and the start of the 72nd Congress (1931–1933), Democrats won enough special elections to take control of a narrowly divided House. Republicans retained their Senate majority by one seat. Congress responded to the Great Depression and established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to provide loans to banks and industry, but President Herbert Hoover vetoed regional public works projects. Unemployed World War I veterans marched on the capital, but Congress refused to fast-track the “bonus” payments they had been promised. Hoover later ordered the Army to evict the veterans from their Washington camps.
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1Before the first day of Congress, 14 representatives-elect died. The results of the special elections caused party control of the House to change and Democrats organized with the majority of the House seats.