In his January 1949 State of the Union message President Harry S. Truman characterized his legislative agenda as providing a "Fair Deal" for all Americans. Building upon the New Deal legacy of reform, Truman advocated full employment legislation, an increase in the minimum wage, economic assistance for farmers, extension of Social Security, and enactment of antidiscrimination employment practices based upon the wartime Fair Employment Practices Committee. The president had previously mentioned these points and called for national health insurance, federal aid to education, and government support for housing in a message to Congress shortly after he took office in 1945. He also advocated antilynching and anti-poll tax legislation.
A coalition of Republicans and southern Democrats in Congress blocked most of Truman's Fair Deal, although the Employment Act of 1946 committed the federal government to the goal of full employment. After Truman's upset victory in 1948, Congress responded by increasing the minimum wage from forty cents to seventy-five cents an hour and extending Social Security benefits to an additional 10 million people. The Housing Act of 1949 provided for slum clearance and construction of 800,000 housing units for the poor. By 1950, however, the president's focus had shifted toward foreign affairs, primarily the Korean War.