Social Security Act

American  

noun

U.S. Government.

1. a law passed in 1935 providing old-age retirement insurance, a federal-state program of unemployment compensation, and federal grants for state welfare programs.

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Example Sentences

When he signed the Social Security Act in 1935, then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said the program was to provide “at least some measure of protection to the average citizen and his family…against poverty-ridden old age.”

From Barron's • May 8, 2026

Unlike many European welfare systems of the era, the Social Security Act of 1935 relied on payroll contributions rather than tax revenues.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 30, 2026

Another example is federal unemployment insurance, which was adopted in the 1935 Social Security Act and significantly expanded over the ensuing decades.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026

He claimed to have reviewed the 1935 congressional hearings on the pending Social Security Act and “never found the word ‘retirement’ in any of the early beginnings of the construction of Social Security.”

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2025

It is the conception which the Court invokes throughout its decisions in sustaining the Social Security Act of 1935 and supplementary state legislation.

From The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952 by Corwin, Edward Samuel