One of the first measures proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was subsequently passed by Congress.

Being that she was secretary of labor, Frances Perkins' considerable influence with Franklin D. Roosevelt was used preventing him from restraining strikes by longshoremen and automobile workers.

Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush all had offices in this building before becoming president.