Abstract
This chapter recounts how Senator Carl Levin became the senior Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) and assembled an investigative team. It lists a dozen Levin Principles on effective oversight and explains how those principles informed his investigations. In addition, the chapter traces PSI’s history and evolution, including its promising origin under Senator Harry Truman, disastrous experience under Senator Joe McCarthy, and recovery under a line of leaders who turned it into the Senate’s most powerful investigative body with strong bipartisan traditions.
“While the conventional assumption is that the strength of legislative bodies lies in the power to legislate, a respectable tradition has long argued that it lies as much or more in the power to investigate.”
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Congress Investigates: A Critical and Documentary History, Volume 1, at xxi (Facts on File 2011)
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Notes
- 1.
“Corporate World Won’t Miss Levin,” Politico, Kelsey Snell (9/11/2014), http://politi.co/2hCzWdH.
- 2.
Senate Resolution 71, 87 Congressional Record 1615 (1941), introduced by Senator Truman, reprinted in The Truman Committee: A Study in Congressional Responsibility, Donald H. Riddle (Rutgers University Press 1964) (hereinafter “The Truman Committee”), at 179.
- 3.
See, for example, The Truman Committee, at vii (Truman Committee “was not only extremely successful, but it was also one of the most responsible investigating committees in recent history”); Congress Investigates, at 636–667 (Truman Committee’s “record of responsible, restrained investigation established an admirable standard”); The Power to Probe: A Study of Congressional Investigations, James Hamilton (Random House 1976), at 9 (Truman Committee was “one of the country’s most effective investigating panels”); Congressional Investigations and Oversight, Lance Cole and Stanley M. Brand (Carolina Academic Press 2011) (hereinafter “Cole and Brand”), at 41 (Truman Committee was “one of the most productive investigating committees in [the Senate’s] entire history”).
- 4.
“The Impact of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Federal Policy,” Georgia Law Review, Volume 21, at 17, 20–21 (Special Issue 1986), Senator Sam Nunn (hereinafter “1986 Nunn Law Review article”); Cole and Brand, at 42.
- 5.
Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, P.L. 79-601, 60 Stat. 812, Section 136 (“To assist the Congress in appraising the administration of the laws and in developing such amendments or related legislation as it may deem necessary, each standing committee of the Senate and the House shall exercise continuous watchfulness of the execution by administrative agencies concerned of any laws, the subject matter of which is within the jurisdiction of such committee …”) (S. 2177); see also “Record of the 79th Congress (Second Session),” CQ Researcher, section on “Modernization of Government,” (undated), http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1946080300.
- 6.
The Truman Committee was merged with the Surplus Property Disposal Subcommittee chaired by former Truman Committee member Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan. The new subcommittee was given custody of the Truman Committee’s files and records. See Senate Oral History of Ruth Young Watt, Interview No. 2, at 51–52, http://bit.ly/2j4tIDL; 1986 Nunn Law Review article, at 21–22; “History of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee of Governmental Affairs,” prepared by PSI (6/1996), at 1 (hereinafter “1996 PSI History”).
- 7.
“First Annual Report of the Investigations Subcommittee of the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments,” S. Rpt. 5 (1/17/1949), at 2 (hereinafter “1949 Annual Report”), http://bit.ly/2zSF7hL.
- 8.
“The Organization of Congress: Some Problems of Committee Jurisdiction,” Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments,” S. Rpt. 51 (7/1951), at 34.
- 9.
See “Export Policy and Loyalty,” Part 1 (7/30/1948), http://bit.ly/2AaPcJM.
- 10.
See “Conduct of Ilse Koch War Crimes Trial,” Part 5 (9/28 and 12/8–9/1948), at 995, http://bit.ly/2zOnqm8; 1949 Annual Report, at 7.
- 11.
See “The 5-Percenter Investigation,” S. Rpt. 1232 (1/18/1950), at 401, http://bit.ly/2zfS200; 2004 GAC Activities Report, at 118; 1986 Nunn Law Review article, at 22.
- 12.
See “Activities of the Mississippi Democratic Committee,” (April 9–11, 26, and May 2, 5, 10, 1951), at 81, http://bit.ly/2Ac6d6L and http://bit.ly/2hItsNV.
- 13.
For more information about the Kefauver Committee, see Congress Investigates, at 715–756; “Guide to the Records of the U.S. Senate in the National Archives of the United States,” Chapter 18, “Records of Senate Select Committees, 1789–1988,” prepared by the National Archives (hereinafter “Records of Senate Select Committees”), ¶¶ 18.133–18.144, http://bit.ly/2j4hniQ.
- 14.
The Power to Probe, at 10.
- 15.
This addition to the subcommittee’s jurisdiction occurred in 1961. 1996 PSI History, at 1.
- 16.
The information in this section is largely based upon Congress Investigates, at 808–848.
- 17.
See, for example, “Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations,” Part 1, S. Prt. 107-84 (1953) (hereinafter “McCarthy Executive Sessions”), http://bit.ly/2mDEOo3.
- 18.
See, for example, “Special Senate Investigation on Charges and Countercharges Involving Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens, John G. Adams, H. Struve Hensel and Senator Joe McCarthy, Roy M. Cohen, and Francis P. Carr” (1954), http://bit.ly/2AR9eWk.
- 19.
Mr. Welch was outside legal counsel for the U.S. Army and testified on June 9, 1954. After Senator McCarthy described Fred Fisher, a young lawyer in Mr. Welch’s law firm, as a law school member of the National Lawyers Guild, which Senator McCarthy described as the “legal arm of the Communist Party,” Mr. Welch said:
Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us. … Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. … Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
For a recording of his testimony, see “American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches,” “McCarthy-Welch Exchange,” http://bit.ly/1NSGNcP.
- 20.
See, for example, McCarthy Executive Sessions, introduction, at XVII.
- 21.
See, for example, “Membership Changes of 83rd Congress (1953–55),” U.S. Senate, http://bit.ly/2is2s2m.
- 22.
PSI still has the desk—one of 100 specially designed for Senate offices in the Russell Building—that PSI lore says Robert Kennedy used during his PSI tenure. After a departing Republican staffer bequeathed it to me, I used it until the day I retired.
- 23.
See United States Senate Election, Expulsion and Censure Cases, 1793–1990, U.S. Senate Historical Office (1995), at 404–407, http://bit.ly/2AaQkgu; Senate Resolution 301 (12/2/1954).
- 24.
See, for example, “Membership Changes of 83rd Congress (1953–55),” U.S. Senate, http://bit.ly/2is2s2m.
- 25.
See A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy, David Oshinsky (The Free Press 1983), at 502–505.
- 26.
See McCarthy Executive Sessions, introduction, at XXVIII.
- 27.
Records of Senate Select Committees, ¶¶ 18.165–18.171; 1986 Nunn Law Review article, at 26–29; 1996 PSI History, at 1; Congress Investigates, at 849–885; “Investigation of Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field—Index to Hearings” (1959), http://bit.ly/2jE0JKB.
- 28.
See, for example, “Gambling and Organized Crime,” Part 1 (8/22–25/1961), http://bit.ly/2j66M79; “James R. Hoffa and Continued Underworld Control of New York Teamster Local 239,” (1/10–12 and 24–25/1961), http://bit.ly/2jGj5uQ.
- 29.
See, for example, 1986 Nunn Law Review article, at 30–33; “Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics,” Part 1 (9/25 and 27, and 10/1–2, 8–9/1963), http://bit.ly/2yUUyF4.
- 30.
See, for example, “Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders,” Part 1 (11/1–3 and 6/1967), http://bit.ly/2zPva6L; “Department of Agriculture Handling of Pooled Cotton Allotments of Billie Sol Estes,” Part 1 (6/27–29 and 7/5/1962), http://bit.ly/2yYgTS5; “TFX Contract Investigation,” Part 1 (2/26–28 and 3/5–6/1963), http://bit.ly/2AcZBVw; and “Organized Crime—Stolen Securities,” Part 1 (6/8–10 and 16/1971), http://bit.ly/2zREEfV.
- 31.
See, for example, “Diversion of Union Welfare-Pension Funds of Allied Trades Council and Teamsters 815,” (6/29 and 7/20–22/1965), http://bit.ly/2hLUC6y; “The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974: The First Decade,” Senate Special Committee on Aging, S. Prt. 98-221 (8/1984), at 10–12, http://bit.ly/2AbwlOL (tracing McClelland hearings’ contribution to ERISA).
- 32.
1996 PSI History, at 1–2.
- 33.
See “Current Energy Shortages Oversight Series-Conflicting Information on Fuel Shortages,” Part 1 (12/14/1973), http://bit.ly/2zNXKpB; “Federal Drug Enforcement,” Part 1 (6/9–11/1975), http://bit.ly/2zdpKmZ; “Hearing Aid Industry,” (4/1–2/1976), http://bit.ly/2mDbDl3; “Arson-for-Hire,” (8/23–24 and 9/13–14/1978), http://bit.ly/2zQTGVi; “Severance Pay-Life Insurance Plans Adopted by Local Unions,” (3/21/1977), http://bit.ly/2mEhFlA; “Labor Union Insurance,” Part 1 (10/10–12 and 17–19/1977), http://bit.ly/2zQ4FOx.
- 34.
“Activities of the Committee on Governmental Affairs,” Report by Governmental Affairs Committee, S. Rpt. 108-421 (12/7/2004) (hereinafter “2004 GAC Activities Report”), at 120, http://bit.ly/2zg37hE; 1986 Nunn Law Review article, at 37–55.
- 35.
See PSI Rule No. 1.
- 36.
2004 GAC Activities Report, at 120–121.
- 37.
Myra Crase was PSI chief clerk from 1979 to 1980, Katherine Bidden from 1981 to 1985, and Carla Martin from 1985 to 1986.
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Bean, E.J. (2018). Landing at PSI. In: Financial Exposure. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94388-6_2
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