When Ronald Reagan was president, Savings and Loan associations became
deregulated and backed by federal insurance.  What mechanisms were used
to achieve these goals?  Executive orders? Laws passed by congress?  I
need the specific identity of these actions: numbers, names, dates. etc.

Hello writech,

Surprisingly, the only mechanism required to deregulate the Savings
and Loans associations was a law passed by Congress, the
Garn-St.Germain Act of 1982 (official title: A bill to revitalize the
housing industry by strengthening the financial stability of home
mortgage lending institutions and ensuring the availability of home
mortgage loans.)  It was introduced by Representative St. Germain in
the 97th Congress on May 4, 1982.  It was signed into law (Public Law
97 - 320) by President Reagan on October 15, 1982.
Since a permanent link to the Bill Information for this law is not
available, I shall give you directions on how to access it: Go to
http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d097query.html and type in "Garn-St. Germain
Act" in the Word/Phrase search box.  The bill should be the first
result.
You can see President Reagan's remarks at the signing ceremony here:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1982/101582b.htm

I hope that this answered your question.  If you need clarification,
please request for it before rating this answer.
Thank you, 
secret901-ga

Sources:
http://www.copi.com/defrauding_america/chp_13.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41779-2002Jul8?language=printer
http://www.pir.org/books54.html
http://www.nd.edu/~cwolbrec/MajorBills.html
http://csf.colorado.edu/students/Snider.Michelle.html

Search Strategy:
"Savings and Loans" deregulation Reagan
"Garn-St.Germain Act"

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Request for Answer Clarification by writech-ga on 20 Sep 2002 18:31 PDT

Thank you for your swift and clear answer to part one of the question.
 I would like to know if that law also placed the Savings and Loans
under federal insurance, or did that require a separate action?

writech.

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Clarification of Answer by secret901-ga on 20 Sep 2002 20:41 PDT

writech,
My apologies for not clearly answering the second part of your
question.  I was assuming that the deregulation and the backing of the
federal insurance was one event.  My research did not reveal any
fundamental changes to the federal insurance system in the 1980's. 
Virtually every bank in the United States was federally insured since
the 1930's (Encyclopaedia Britannica).  One change that occurred
shortly before Reagan took office was the Depository Institutions
Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980, which raised the
ceiling on insured deposits from $40,000 to $100,000.

Furthermore, the Garn-St. Germain Act:
"Amend[ed] the Home Owners' Loan Act to allow the Federal Home Loan
Bank Board to authorize a mutual institution to become, or merge into,
a newly-chartered, Federal stock savings bank."
and
"Amend[ed] the National Housing Act to permit the Federal Savings and
Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) to provide assistance to insured
institutions when severe financial conditions exist which threaten the
stability of a significant number of insured institutions."

As a result of the S & L crisis in the early 1980's, in 1989 the
Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act
eliminated the FSLIC and transferred the responsibilities to the FDIC.

Please tell me more about what you mean by "backed by federal
insurance."  Please tell me whether the two laws mentioned are what
you're looking for, and I will research them for you.  Do those two
events happen concurrently or does one cause the other to happen?

Thanks,
secret901-ga

http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Deregulation.htm
http://cber.nlu.edu/DBR/Z3.htm