The Rural Electric Administration was a department of the United States federal government created on 11 May 1935 through efforts of the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The REA's task was to promote electrification in rural areas, which in the 1930s rarely were provided with electricity due to the cost of stringing electric lines to farmsteads. Many were critical of the decision, in particular private electricity utilities, who argued that the government had no right to compete with private enterprise. By 1939 the REA served 288,000 households with electricity, prompting private business to extend their services into the countryside as well. By the end of the decade, a quarter of rural homes had power, up from around 10% in 1930.
