In 1933, President Roosevelt, in order to try to relieve the widespread misery due to a now unthinkable unemployment rate of 25% that he inherited from the previous Republican administration, began submitting his New Deal legislation to Congress, which had a top-heavy Democratic majority. From 1933 to 1938, Wolfenden voted against most New Deal proposals, with the exception of several major pieces of legislation, such as the constitutional amendment to repeal Prohibition and allow the purchase of liquor (1933), the "Relief Act" to allocate money to relieve suffering (1933); the "Gold Reserve Act", which devalued the dollar taking the U.S. off the gold standard (1934); the "Social Security Act" (1935); the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set a forty-hour work week along with a minimum wage (1938).