Public Works Administration

American  

noun

1. the U.S. federal agency (1933–44) that instituted and administered projects for the construction of public works. PWA, P.W.A.

---

Example Sentences

The Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration provided men with work building things like roads, bridges, and schools.

From Literature

The Grand Coulee Dam and the Bonneville Dam projects, funded by the federal Public Works Administration, hired 3,000 workers during the Depression.

From Seattle Times

His approach differed from that of Ickes, who as head of the Public Works Administration demanded that its projects pass rigorous scrutiny for financial efficiency and lasting public value.

From Los Angeles Times

Mr. Zakaria might also have noted that the Rural Electrification Administration was designed by Morris Cooke, that the Tennessee Valley Authority’s principal advocate in Congress was Sen. George Norris of Nebraska and that the Public Works Administration was administered by Interior Secretary Harold Ickes.

From Washington Post

And, I mean, there definitely is a New Deal spirit to the plan: It’s sort of like if you took the Works Progress Administration, the Public Works Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Rural Electrification Act, and everything else that built a bridge, a schoolhouse, a dam, or laid an electrical line in the 1930s and threw it into one big bill.

From Slate