Tennessee Valley Authority Act

About the Author

George William Norris, who sponsored the Tennessee Valley Authority Act in the Senate and who was the person most responsible for writing the act, was a senator from Nebraska, not the South. Norris, considered the “father of the Tennessee Valley Authority,” was born in 1861 in York Township, Ohio, to a farming family. Although his father, Chauncey, had died when Norris was a child, his mother, Mary, ensured that Norris and his siblings received an education. He attended area public schools during the winter months and worked for neighboring farmers in the summers. He worked his way through Northern Indiana Normal School, earning a bachelor's degree and then a law degree. He graduated and was admitted to the bar in 1883 at the age of twenty-two.

After a short stint teaching, Norris settled in Nebraska in 1885. He married Pluma Lashley and began practicing law. In addition to building a successful law practice, he also served three terms as Furnas County's prosecuting attorney and gained a reputation for honesty and fairness. In 1895 Norris was elected judge for Nebraska's fourteenth judicial district, where he served until 1902. In 1901 Pluma died during childbirth, leaving Norris to care for their three daughters. Despite his loss and grief, Norris ran for and won a spot in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1902. He married Ellie Leonard in 1903 and spent the next ten years in the House of Representatives. In 1910 Norris participated in challenging the Speaker of the House's power to arbitrarily choose committee appointments, which resulted in a resolution that limited the Speaker's power. This strengthened Norris's reputation for integrity, and he was elected to the Senate in 1913, where he served until 1943.

Throughout his Senate career Norris was true to his beliefs. He was a supporter of Woodrow Wilson's progressive domestic policies, a vocal opponent of Wilson's foreign policies, and one of just six senators who voted against Wilson's war resolution. Although he was a Republican, Norris was often at odds with the Republican presidents of the 1920s. Norris continually pushed a progressive agenda that included farm relief, conservation, rural electricity, and improved working conditions for laborers. Roosevelt called Norris a “gentle knight of American progressive ideals.” Norris was not elected to a sixth term in the Senate. He died just two years later, on September 2, 1944.

Representative Joseph Lister Hill from Alabama worked with Norris and sponsored the Tennessee Valley Authority Act in the House. Hill was the son of a distinguished surgeon and was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 29, 1894. He received a law degree from the University of Alabama at just twenty years old. Hill practiced law until, in 1923, he was elected to the House, where he served for forty-six years. He was most well known for his landmark legislation in public health, including the Hill-Burton Act, also called the Hospital Survey and Construction Act of 1946. It is estimated that, at the time of his death, more than 9,200 medical facilities had been constructed or renovated because of the Hill-Burton Act.