March 11, 1941

Lend-Lease

Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act and approves the first aid list

Within minutes of posing for the signing photographs, Roosevelt approved the first shipment list — mostly for Britain, and partly for Greece.

11 March 1941: signed at about ten minutes to four

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed H.R. 1776, the Act to Promote the Defense of the United States, on 11 March 1941 — the same day the House concurred in the Senate's amendments, by 317–71.

Roosevelt told reporters he signed at approximately 3:50 p.m., in front of press photographers, and immediately approved the first list of material: most for Britain, a portion for Greece.

Congress had given the bill the number H.R. 1776.

What the statute authorised

The law empowered the president to procure and dispose of defense articles — by sale, transfer, exchange, lease or loan — to a government whose defense he considered vital to the defense of the United States.

"Lend" and "lease" were political shorthand: the statute authorised several forms of disposition and allowed the president to accept direct or indirect benefits on terms he deemed satisfactory.

It did not declare war or make the United States a belligerent; the country remained officially neutral.

Two months of votes behind it

John W. McCormack had introduced the bill on 10 January 1941. The House passed it 260–165 on 8 February, and the Senate passed an amended version 60–31 on 8 March.

Britain's ability to buy American war supplies under cash-and-carry was being exhausted, while Roosevelt argued that supplying countries resisting Axis aggression was itself necessary for American defense.

Congress appropriated $7 billion for the program on 27 March 1941.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →