On June 16, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in response to the Great Depression, signed a bill that he saw as the linchpin of the New Deal program, the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). This legislation was the boldest effort ever to coordinate the economy of the world’s greatest industrial power. The NIRA was an omnibus bill, that is, one that addresses several diverse concerns, foremost among them the revival of business. It required any industry engaged in interstate commerce to draft a code that would be approved by the president. Each such code would limit production and thereby prevent cutthroat competition, the source of many business failures. The president was authorized to license businesses so as to police recalcitrant firms.