| A.
Expansion of Jurisdiction
Although its records
and jurisdiction actually predate its authorization, the Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations ("Subcommittee") was originally
authorized by Senate Resolution 189 on January 28, 1948. At its creation
in 1948, the Subcommittee was part of the Committee on Expenditures
in the Executive Departments. The Subcommittee’s records and
broad investigative jurisdiction over government operations and national
security issues, however, actually antedate its creation, since it
was given custody of the jurisdiction of the former Special Committee
to Investigate the National Defense Program (the so-called "War
Investigating Committee" or "Truman Committee"), chaired
by Senator Harry S. Truman during the Second World War. Today, the
Subcommittee is part of the Committee on Governmental Affairs.1
The Subcommittee
has had ten chairmen: Senators Homer Ferguson of Michigan (1948), Clyde
R. Hoey of North Carolina (1949-1952), Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin
(1953-1954), John L. McClellan of Arkansas (1955-1972), Henry M. Jackson
of Washington (1973-1978), Sam Nunn of Georgia (1979-1980 and 1987-1994),
William V. Roth of Delaware (1981-1986 and 1995-1996), Susan M. Collins
of Maine (1997 to 2001), Carl Levin of Michigan (2001 to January 2003),
and Norm Coleman of Minnesota (January 2003 to present).
Until 1957, the
Subcommittee’s jurisdiction focused principally on waste, inefficiency,
impropriety, and illegality in government operations. Its jurisdiction
has been expanded considerably since then, however; today it encompasses
investigations within the broad ambit of the parent committee’s
responsibility for matters relating to the efficiency and economy of
operations of all branches of the Government with regard to (a) fraud,
waste, and abuse in government contracting; (b) criminality or improper
practices in labor-management relations; (c) organized criminal activities
affecting interstate commerce; (d) other criminal activity affecting
the national health, welfare, or safety; (e) the effectiveness of present
national security methods, staffing or procedures or intergovernmental
national security relationships; (f) energy shortages; and (g) the
operations and management of Federal regulatory policies and programs.
The Subcommittee
acquired this sweeping jurisdiction in several successive stages. In
1957 – based on information developed by the Subcommittee –
the Senate passed a Resolution establishing a Select Committee on Improper
Activities in the Labor or Management Field. Chaired by Senator McClellan,
who also chaired the Subcommittee at that time, the Select Committee
was composed of eight Senators – four of whom were drawn from
the Subcommittee on Investigations and four from the Committee on Labor
and Public Welfare. The Select Committee existed for three years sharing
office space, personnel, and other facilities with the Permanent Subcommittee.
Upon its expiration in early 1960, the Select Committee’s jurisdiction
and files were transferred to the Subcommittee on Investigations, greatly
enlarging the latter body’s investigative authority in the labor-management
area.
The Subcommittee’s
jurisdiction expanded further throughout the 1960s. In 1961, for example,
it received authority to make inquiries into matters pertaining to
syndicated or organized crime.2 In the wake of the riots and other
civil disturbances that marked the summer of 1967, the Senate approved
a Resolution directing the Subcommittee to investigate the causes of
this disorder and to recommend corrective action. The Subcommittee
acquired its national security mandate in January 1973, when it merged
with the National Security Subcommittee. With this merger, the Subcommittee’s
jurisdiction was broadened to include inquiries concerning the adequacy
of national security staffing and procedures, relations with international
organizations, technology transfer issues, and related matters. Finally,
in 1974 – in reaction to the global oil shock and energy shortage
precipitated by the Arab-Israeli war of October 1973 – the Subcommittee
also acquired jurisdiction to investigate government operations involving
the control and management of energy resources and supplies.
B. Past
Investigations
Armed with this
broad jurisdictional mandate, the Subcommittee has in recent years
conducted investigations into a wide variety of topics of public concern,
ranging from organized crime activities such as labor racketeering,
fraudulent insurance plans, and newly emerging criminal groups to student
loan programs, health care fraud, and the proliferation of chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons. The Subcommittee has also conducted
investigations into numerous aspects of the narcotics trade, including
money laundering, issues in federal drug enforcement, and drug abuse.
The Subcommittee has also devoted itself particularly to investigating
allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs. Most
recently, the Subcommittee has focused on consumer protection issues,
addressing problems ranging from the safety of imported foods to issues
of Medicare fraud, and issues involving the use of U.S. banks in international
money laundering. The Subcommittee is currently conducting an investigation
into the volatility of gasoline prices, the gasoline delivery system
and the impact on consumers.
The second session
of the 105th Congress was a significant one for the Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations, since January 28, 1998 marked the fiftieth anniversary
of the Truman Committee’s conversion into a permanent subcommittee
of the U.S. Senate.3 In the half-century of its existence, the Subcommittee’s
many successes have made clear to the Senate the importance of retaining
a standing investigatory body.
(1) Historical
Highlights
Under the first
chairmanship of Republican Senator Homer Ferguson and his Chief Counsel
(and future Secretary of State) William P. Rogers, the Subcommittee
inherited the Truman Committee’s role in investigating fraud
and waste in U.S. Government operations. This investigative work became
particularly colorful under the chairmanship of Senator Clyde Hoey
– a North Carolina Democrat who took the chair from Senator Ferguson
after the 1948 elections. The last U.S. Senator to wear a long frock
coat and wing-tipped collar, Mr. Hoey was a distinguished southern
gentleman of the old school. Under his leadership, the Subcommittee
won national attention for its investigation of the so-called "five
percenters," notorious Washington lobbyists who charged their
clients five percent of the profits from any federal contracts they
obtained on the client’s behalf. Given the Subcommittee’s
jurisdictional inheritance from the Truman Committee, it is perhaps
ironic that the "five percenters" investigation raised allegations
of bribery and influence-peddling that reached right into the White
House and implicated members of President Harry Truman’s staff.
In any event, the fledgling Subcommittee was off to a rapid start.
What began as
colorful soon became contentious. When Republicans returned to the
majority in the Senate in 1953, Wisconsin’s junior Senator, Joseph
R. McCarthy, became the Subcommittee’s chairman. Two years earlier,
as Ranking Minority Member, McCarthy had arranged for another Republican
Senator, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, to be removed from the Subcommittee.
Senator Smith’s offense, in McCarthy’s eyes, was her issuance
of a "Declaration of Conscience" repudiating those who made
unfounded charges and used character assassination against their political
opponents. Although Senator Smith had carefully declined to name any
specific offender, her remarks were universally recognized as criticism
of McCarthy’s accusations that communists had infiltrated the
State Department and other government agencies. McCarthy retaliated
by engineering Senator Smith’s removal from the Subcommittee,
replacing her with the newly-elected Senator from California, Richard
M. Nixon.
Upon becoming
Subcommittee Chairman, McCarthy staged a series of highly publicized
anti-communist investigations, culminating in an inquiry into communism
within the U.S. Army, which became known as the Army-McCarthy hearings.
During the latter portion of these hearings, in which the parent Committee
examined the Wisconsin Senator’s attacks on the Army, Senator
McCarthy recused himself, leaving South Dakota Senator Karl Mundt to
serve as Acting Chairman of the Subcommittee. Gavel-to-gavel television
coverage of the hearings helped turn the tide against McCarthy by raising
public concern about his treatment of witnesses and cavalier use of
evidence. In December of 1954, the Senate censured Senator McCarthy
for unbecoming conduct; in the following year, the Subcommittee adopted
new rules of procedure that better protected the rights of witnesses.
It had taken some years, but these developments finally vindicated
the courageous stand of Senator Margaret Chase Smith.
In 1955, Senator
John McClellan of Arkansas began eighteen years of service as Chairman
of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Senator McClellan
appointed the young Robert F. Kennedy as the Subcommittee’s Chief
Counsel. That same year, Members of the Subcommittee were joined by
Members of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee on a special
committee to investigate labor racketeering. Chaired by Senator McClellan
and staffed by Kennedy and other Subcommittee staff members, this special
committee directed much of its attention to criminal influence over
the Teamsters Union, most famously calling Teamsters’ leaders
Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa to testify. The televised hearings of the
special committee also introduced Senators Barry Goldwater and John
F. Kennedy to the nation, as well as leading to passage of the Landrum-Griffin
Labor Act. After each day’s hearings, moreover, Robert Kennedy
and other staff members, including Pierre Salinger and Kenneth O’Donnell,
would meet in the committee’s back room to plan strategies for
Senator John Kennedy’s upcoming 1960 presidential campaign. As
Ruth Watt, the Subcommittee’s Chief Clerk, observed: "They
were running for President in our office after 5:00 o’clock in
the evening." Several of the Subcommittee’s staff members
would subsequently join the Kennedy Administration.
After the special
committee completed its work, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
continued to investigate organized crime. In 1962, the Subcommittee
held hearings during which Joseph Valachi outlined the activities of
La Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia. Former Subcommittee staffer Robert Kennedy
– who had by now become Attorney General in his brother’s
Administration – used this information to prosecute prominent
mob leaders and their accomplices. The Subcommittee’s investigations
also led to passage of major legislation against organized crime, most
notably the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) provision
of the Crime Control Act of 1970. Under Chairman McClellan, the Subcommittee
also investigated fraud in the purchase of military uniforms, corruption
in the Department of Agriculture’s grain storage program, securities
fraud, and civil disorders and acts of terrorism. From 1962 to 1970,
the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations conducted an extensive
probe of political interference in the awarding of government contracts
for the Pentagon’s ill-fated TFX ("tactical fighter, experimental").
In 1968, the Subcommittee also examined charges of corruption in U.S.
servicemen’s clubs in Vietnam and elsewhere around the world.
In 1973, Senator
Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a Democrat from Washington, replaced
McClellan as the Subcommittee’s chairman and Senator Charles
Percy, an Illinois Republican, became the Ranking Minority Member.
During Senator Jackson’s chairmanship, the Subcommittee conducted
landmark hearings into energy shortages and the operation of the oil
industry.
The regular reversals
of political fortunes in the Senate of the 1980s and 1990s saw Senator
Nunn trade chairmanship three times with Delaware Republican William
Roth. Nunn served from 1979 to 1980 and again from 1987 to 1995, while
Roth served from 1981 to 1986, and again from 1995 to 1996. Senator
Roth led a wide range of investigations into commodity investment fraud,
off-shore banking schemes, money laundering, and child pornography.
Senator Nunn inquired into federal drug policy, the global spread of
chemical and biological weapons, abuses in federal student aid programs,
computer security, airline safety, and health care fraud. Senator Nunn
also appointed the Subcommittee’s first female counsel, Eleanore
Hill, who served as Chief Counsel to the Minority from 1982 to 1986
and then as Chief Counsel from 1987 to 1995.
In January 1997
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, became the first woman to
chair the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Senator John Glenn
of Ohio became Ranking Member. Upon Senator Glenn’s retirement
from the Senate, Senator Levin became Ranking Member in 1999. In June
2001, when the Democrats resumed control of the Senate, Senator Levin
assumed the chairmanship of the Subcommittee until January 2003 when
Senator Norm Coleman assumed the Chairmanship. Senator Levin serves
as the Ranking Member.
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1In 1952, the
parent committee’s name was changed to the Committee on Government
Operations. It was changed again in early 1977, to the Committee on
Governmental Affairs, its present title.
2It exercised
this jurisdiction in 1963, for example, in organizing the famous Valachi
hearings described below, in which the Subcommittee examined the inner
workings of the Italian Mafia.
3This anniversary
also marks the first date upon which internal Subcommittee records
generally began to become available to the public. Unlike most standing
committees of the Senate whose previously unpublished records open
after a period of twenty years has elapsed, the Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations, as an investigatory body, may close its records
for fifty years to protect personal privacy and the integrity of the
investigatory process. With this fiftieth anniversary, the Subcommittee’s
earliest records, housed in the Center for Legislative Archives at
the National Archives and Records Administration, began to open seriatim.
The records of the predecessor committee – the Truman Committee
– were opened by Senator Nunn in 1980.
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