[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 28, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S182-S183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, 1998 marks the fiftieth 
anniversary of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations. On January 28, 1948, the Senate adopted 
a resolution converting the Special Committee to Investigate the 
National Defense Program (better known as the ``Truman Committee'' for 
its first chairman, Missouri Senator Harry Truman) into a permanent 
subcommittee. The special committee looked into charges of waste and 
abuse in defense contracting during the Second World War. After its 
first chairman resigned to become Vice President and then President of 
the United States, the Committee continued to investigate fraud and 
corruption in the postwar years. Its many successes convinced the 
Senate of the need to retain an ongoing mechanism to combat wrongdoing 
and to keep government honest. Today, we celebrate a half century of 
these endeavors.
  As Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, I wish 
to pay tribute to all of the Senators who have served on the 
Subcommittee, and to offer a brief survey of the highlights of the 
Subcommittee's activities over the years.
  Senator Ralph Owen Brewster of Maine chaired the ``Truman Committee'' 
during the Republican Eightieth Congress, but when the Senate 
transferred the functions of the special committee to the Committee on 
Expenditures in the Executive Departments--a precursor of Governmental 
Affairs Committee--Senator Brewster was not a member of that committee 
and could not chair the new subcommittee.
  The Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Branch already had a 
subcommittee to Investigate Surplus Property Disposal, chaired by 
Michigan Senator Homer Ferguson. Senator Ferguson, a former judge, had 
also been a member of the Truman Committee, and had occasionally served 
as its acting chairman. Assuming the leadership of the new 
subcommittee, which was to be called the Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations, Ferguson inherited the special committee's authority, 
functions, and powers. He merged its staff members with those from his 
subcommittee to Investigate Surplus Property Disposal. Notably, he 
retained the Truman Committee's chief counsel William Rogers (who later 
served as Secretary of State) and its chief clerk, Ruth Young Watt (a 
Maine native who served as chief clerk from the Subcommittee's 
beginning until her retirement in 1979). While technically reduced to a 
Subcommittee of a standing committee, the Permanent Subcommittee 
exercised authority almost as a separate entity, selecting its own 
staff and determining its own investigatory agenda.
  Senator Homer Ferguson's Chairmanship ended with the election of 
1948, which changed the Senate's majority and made Senator Clyde Hoey, 
a North Carolina Democrat, Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations. 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. During his leadership, the Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations won national attention for its investigation of the 
``five percenters,'' Washington lobbyists who charged their clients 
five percent of the profits from any federal contracts they obtained 
for them. The ``five percenters'' investigation raised allegations of 
bribery and influence-peddling that reached right into the White House 
and implicated some members of President Truman's staff.
  When Republicans regained the Senate's majority in 1953, at the 
beginning of the Eisenhower administration, Wisconsin's junior Senator, 
Joseph R. McCarthy, took over as Chairman of the Permanent 
Subcommittee. Two years earlier, as Ranking Minority Member, Senator 
McCarthy had removed from the Committee another Republican Senator, 
Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. Senator Smith had issued a ``Declaration 
of Conscience'' against those who made unfounded charges and used 
character assassination against their political opponents. Although 
Senator Smith had not named a specific offender, her remarks were 
universally recognized as criticism of Senator McCarthy's accusations 
that Communists had infiltrated the State Department and other 
government agencies. Senator McCarthy retaliated by eliminating Senator 
Smith from his Subcommittee and replacing her with the newly elected 
senator from California, Richard M. Nixon.
  When Senator McCarthy became Subcommittee Chairman, he staged a 
series of highly publicized anti-communist investigations, culminating 
in an inquiry into communism in the U.S. Army, which became known as 
the Army-McCarthy hearings. During the latter portion of these 
hearings, in which the Committee examined the Wisconsin Senator's 
attacks on the army, Senator McCarthy recused himself, and South Dakota 
Senator Karl Mundt served as Acting Chairman of the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations. Gavel-to-gavel television coverage of 
the hearings raised public concern about Senator McCarthy's treatment 
of witnesses and his irresponsible use of evidence. In December of 
1954, the Senate censured Senator McCarthy for unbecoming conduct, and 
the following year the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations adopted 
new rules of procedure that better protected the rights of witnesses. 
These actions vindicated the courageous stand of Maine 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 Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations 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 Robert Kennedy and other staff members of the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations, the special committee directed much of 
its attention to criminal influence over the Teamsters Union, calling 
Teamsters' leaders Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa to testify. The televised 
hearings of the special committee introduced Senators Barry Goldwater 
and John F. Kennedy to the nation, and led to passage of the Landrum-
Griffin Labor Act.
  After the special committee completed its work, the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations continued to investigate organized 
crime. In 1962, the Subcommittee held hearings in which Joseph Valachi 
outlined the activities of La Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia. Robert 
Kennedy, by then Attorney General, used this information to prosecute 
prominent mob leaders and their accomplices. The investigations also 
led to passage of major legislation against organized crime, most 
notably

[[Page S183]]

the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) provision of 
the Crime Control Act of 1970. Under Chairman McClellan, the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations also investigated fraud in the purchase 
of military uniforms, corruption in the Department of Agriculture's 
grain storage program, securities frauds, 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 TFX (``tactical 
fighter, experimental''). In 1968, the Subcommittee also looked into 
charges of corruption in U.S. servicemen's clubs in Vietnam and 
elsewhere around the world.
  Senator Henry ``Scoop'' Jackson, a Democrat from Washington, replaced 
Senator McClellan as Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee in 1973. 
Senator Jackson continued most of the Subcommittee staff but added 
Howard Feldman as Chief Counsel. During these years, Chief Clerk Ruth 
Young Watt noted that the Subcommittee's Ranking Minority Member, 
Senator Charles Percy, an Illinois Republican, was even more active on 
the Committee than was the Chairman, who was balancing his Chairmanship 
of the Interior Committee and his active role on the Armed Services 
Committee.
  It had not been uncommon in the Subcommittee's history for the 
Chairman and Ranking Minority Member to work together closely despite 
their partisan differences, but Senator Percy was unusually active in 
the minority--even chairing one investigation of the hearing aid 
industry. Senator Percy continued to work in tandem with Senator Sam 
Nunn, who succeeded Senator Jackson as Chairman of the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations in 1979. As Chairman, Senator Nunn 
continued the Subcommittee's investigations into the role of organized 
crime in labor-management relations and also investigated pension 
frauds.
  The regular reversals of political fortunes in the 1980s and 1990s 
saw Georgia Democrat Sam Nunn alternate the Chairmanship with Delaware 
Republican William Roth. Senator Nunn Chaired the Subcommittee from 
1979 to 1980 and again from 1987 to 1995. Senator Roth served as Chair 
from 1981 to 1986, and again from 1995 to 1996. Senator Roth led a wide 
range of investigations into commodity investment fraud, offshore 
banking schemes, money laundering, airline safety, child pornography, 
and computer security. Senator Nunn pursued federal drug policy, the 
global spread of chemical and biological weapons, abuses in the federal 
student aid programs, and health care fraud. Senator Nunn also 
appointed the first woman counsel, Eleanore Hill, who served as Chief 
Counsel to the Minority from 1982 to 1986 and then as Chief Counsel 
from 1987 to 1995. Ms. Hill is now the Inspector General at the 
Department of Defense.
  In January 1997, I became the first freshman and woman to Chair the 
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and I appointed Timothy Shea 
as Chief Counsel. During the first session of the 105th Congress, the 
Subcommittee held hearings into Medicare fraud and penny stock fraud, 
as well as an oversight review of the Office of the Inspector General 
at the Treasury Department that led to the resignation of the Inspector 
General.
  Now we have reached the Subcommittee's fiftieth anniversary, which 
marks another significant milestone. Unlike most standing committees of 
the Senate, whose previously unpublished records open for scholarly 
research 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 
investigatory process. Over the past half century, scholars have 
studied and written about many of the Subcommittee's investigations by 
using its voluminous public hearings, newspaper accounts, oral 
histories, and the personal papers of the Senators who served on the 
Subcommittee, but they have also expressed keen interest in examining 
the Subcommittee's own historical records. With this fiftieth 
anniversary, the Subcommittee's earliest records, housed in the Center 
for Legislative Archives at the National Archives and Records 
Administration, will begin to open seriatim. The records of our 
predecessor committee--the Truman Committee--were opened by Senator 
Nunn in 1980. I trust that the new scholarship that emerges from these 
records will further national awareness of the Permanent Subcommittee 
on Investigations' role and its numerous accomplishments.
  The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations does not intend to rest 
on its historical laurels. As Chair, I pledge a continuation of the 
Subcommittee's mission of vigilant exposure of government malfeasance, 
social and economic wrongdoing, and serious violations of the public 
trust. We will focus on problems that affect the American people in 
their daily lives so that our work will help and protect the people of 
Maine and Americans across the nation.
  Mr. President, I ask to have printed in the Record a list of all the 
Chairmen, Ranking Minority Members, and Chief Counsels of the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations over the past fifty years.
  The list follows:


         Chairs of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

     Homer Ferguson (R--Michigan), 1948-1949
     Clyde R. Hoey (D--North Carolina), 1949-1952
     Joseph R. McCarthy (R--Wisconsin), 1953-1954
     John L. McClellan (D--Arkansas), 1955-1972
     Henry M. Jackson (D--Washington), 1973-1978
     Sam Nunn (D--Georgia), 1979-1980, 1987-1994
     William V. Roth, Jr. (R--Delaware), 1981-1986, 1995-1996
     Susan M. Collins (R--Maine), 1997-present


                        Ranking Minority Members

     John L. McClellan (D--Arkansas), 1948-1950, 1953-1955
     Joseph R. McCarthy (R--Wisconsin), 1950-1952, 1955-1957
     Karl E. Mundt (R--South Dakota), 1958-1971
     Charles H. Percy (R--Illinois), 1972-1980
     Sam Nunn (D--Georgia), 1981-1986, 1995-1996
     William V. Roth, Jr. (R--Delaware), 1987-1994
     John Glenn (D--Ohio), 1997-present


                             Chief Counsels

     William P. Rogers, 1948-1950
     Francis D. Flanagan, 1950-1953
     Roy M. Cohn, 1953-1954
     Robert F. Kennedy, 1955-1957
     Donald F. O'Donnell, 1957-1970
     Jerome S. Adelman, 1970-1971
     John P. Constandy, 1971-1973
     Howard J. Feldman, 1973-1976
     Owen J. Malone, 1977-1979
     Lavern Duffy, 1979
     Marty Steinberg, 1979-1981
     S. Cass Weiland, 1981-1984
     Daniel F. Rinzel, 1984-1987
     Eleanore J. Hill, 1987-1995
     Harold Damelin, 1995-1996
     Timothy J. Shea, 1997-present 

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