<P> Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large - scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes . It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression . It built large - scale public works such as dams, bridges, hospitals, and schools . Its goals were to spend $3.3 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in all, to provide employment, stabilize purchasing power, and help revive the economy . Most of the spending came in two waves in 1933 - 35, and again in 1938 . Originally called the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, it was renamed the Public Works Administration in 1935 and shut down in 1944 . </P> <P> The PWA spent over $7 billion in contracts to private construction firms that did the actual work . It created an infrastructure that generated national and local pride in the 1930s and remains vital seven decades later . The PWA was much less controversial than its rival agency with a confusingly similar name, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by Harry Hopkins, which focused on smaller projects and hired unemployed unskilled workers . </P>

What did the public works administration spend its money on
find me the text answering this question