It was April 2016 , and in a hearing room in Washington , D.C. , an assortment of Valeant Pharmaceuticals official each took their turning sit around in the live seat , enduring a bombardment of query from U.S.senatorsabout the party ’s practice of buying existing drug and dramatically elevate their Leontyne Price . One executive director let in that Valeant had made " fault . " But the senators were n’t much moved by the witness ’s attrition . Sen. Claire McCaskill , D - Mo. , angrily denounced the company and its practices . " It ’s immoral , " she proclaim . " It hurt real people , and it do Americans very , very angry " [ source : Thomas , Koons and Edney ] .
The Senate investigation ofpharmaceuticalspricing was just one of many such drama that have fiddle out on Capitol Hill . Since 1792 , when the U.S. House passed a resolution call for a probe into a fatal military outing against the Indians in the Northwest Territory , members of Congress have channel score of investigating on allege misconduct and/or mistakes of various variety .
Many of the probes — including some of the famous ones , such as the Watergate hearings of the mid-1970s — call for action of the executive director subdivision , in keeping with Congress ’s role as a check - and - balance against presidential great power . But legislator have investigate plenty of problem and controversy in the secret sector as well , ranging from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and rig television quiz demonstrate in the 1950s to the use of sex hormone and other performance - raise substance in Major League Baseball in the mid-2000s .
How does Congress adjudicate what to investigate , and how does it go about doing it ? What tangible impacts do all these probes have ? How much of it is about work trouble , and how much is just grandstanding for political purposes ? In this clause , we ’ll assay to do all those interrogative sentence , and more .
How Do Congressional Investigations Get Started?
Even before Congress existed , one of thefounding fathers , James Madison , saw that it would be crucial for legislators to double as investigator , in part to keep thepresidentand the executive branch honest . To balance the government ’s control over the citizens it govern , Madison publish , Americans had to " in the next place obligate it to control itself " [ rootage : U.S. Senate ] . The U.S. Constitution , though , does n’t explicitly import out Congress ’s investigative government agency . Instead , as court decisions have found , the authorisation is inferred as part of the " all legislative powers " granted by Article 1 , incision 1 of the Constitution [ author : U.S. House ] .
U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1881 and 1927 give Congress fairly broad mightiness to investigate just about anything , as long as it ’s a matter that Congress is entitled to pass on lawmaking or take other natural action about [ source : Curry , et al . ] . That makes a Congressional probe unlike from , say , an FBI investigation , where the object is to determine whether a offence has been intrust . But if Congress does find evidence of criminal acts , it can pass that data along to the Justice Department , which has the authority to file charges [ source : Hennessey and Murillo ] .
Most of the investigation that Congress lead are carried out bystanding committeesand subcommittees , which typically have responsibility over sealed areas , such as banking or intelligence activity matters , and conduct probe as part of their veritable duties . But both sign also can createspecialorselectcommittees , temporary investigative bodies that are put together just to savvy into a particular burning issue . Select citizens committee postulate a majority voter turnout in the chamber , which is n’t subject to a presidential veto [ sources : Senate , Hennessey and Murillo ] .
A lot of unlike things can trigger off an probe . Many of them are reactions to full-grown event , such as the 2008 Wall Street nuclear meltdown . In other instance , investigative reporting by the intelligence media may lead members of Congress to conduct a probe . In 2015 , for example , stories about the dying of a Marine Corps old hand who ’d been prescribed multiple drugs while under Veterans Administration upkeep , led to a Senate investigating , which the following twelvemonth concluded that the VA did n’t have adequate home safeguards to protect affected role [ source : Slack ] .
Gathering Information for a Congressional Investigation
Once a Congressional committee begins to investigate something , it has a draw of ability . Ever since an 1827 probe in which the House empowered a commission " to send for somebody and papers " related to tariff lawmaking , both the House and Senate have claimed the right to summon anyone inside or outside the U.S. government to testify . Some witnesses may attest voluntarily , but those who are issued subpoenas do n’t have any alternative . Congress passed an 1857 law allowing them to be prosecute for contempt of Congress if they do n’t comply . And they have to narrate the accuracy , or face perjury charges [ source : U.S. Senate ] .
But witness testimony in hearings is just the most seeable part of the investigation process . Congressional probes can issue subpoenas for documents . citizens committee stave members — who do much of the digging that Congress members get to take credit for — conduct deposit , in which they take sworn testimonial from informant in private setting . That arrangement allows them to preview what hoi polloi might say in an loose sense of hearing , and to avow any bombshell assertion before they become public .
It ’s not punishing to figure out that the office to compel people to testify to Congress easily could be misused . To hold against such abuses , the Supreme Court in 1957 ruled that witnesses have to be inform of the precise matter of the investigation , and ca n’t be force to speak about anything else [ source : Curry , et al . ] witness also can claim a Fifth Amendment perquisite against self - incrimination , and show up for the audition but refuse to attest , as Col . Oliver North did special House Select Committee to investigate the Iran - Contra Affair [ source : Hennessey and Murillo ] .
In that sheath , Congressional committees have another tool of last resort . They can determine by a two - thirds vote to award immunity from prosecution , and then get a federal court to issue an purchase order compel the witness to bear witness . But granting immunity can be a speculative proffer from a political standpoint . If a witness admits to really heinouscrimesand ca n’t be prosecuted for them , the populace may let loose some of its outrage on politician who made that potential [ source : Hennessey and Murillo ] .
Are Investigations Really in the Public Interest?
Congressional probers seldom admit to having anything but the noblest motives , but it ’s hard to traverse that probe have political value — either for raise the visibility of the legislator , or for weaken the other company when it controls the White House . As political scientists Douglas Kriner and Liam Schwartz found in a 2008 study , investigations increase by 12 percentage in years when there ’s a divided government , and the days dedicate to hearings increase from 12.28 to 19.92 , a 62 percent difference .
After theDemocratsseized control of Congress in the 2006 midterm exam elections , for example , they launched an onslaught of investigations against GOP President George W. Bush ’s administration , holding 81 earreach in the first two month of the sitting on case related to the Iraq war , admit deficient consideration at Walter Reed Army Medical Center . That ’s not to say that those investigating were undue . But they also had strategic political value . The multiple probes caused a batch of difficulties for an administration that had used " keep going the troop " as its political mantra , Kriner and Schwartz wrote .
Not amazingly , after Republicans retrieve control of the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014 , there was a similar uptick in probe of the government activity of Democratic PresidentBarack Obama . After the 2012 scourge fire on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi , Libya , in which four Americans died , Congress conducted more than 30 auditory sense on the attack , involving 10 different committees and 250 - plus attestant [ source : Cottle ] .
That included a two - class - long House probe which did n’t cover its findings until July 2016 , in the midst of the presidential election race in which one study of the probe , former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , bump to be the Democratic campaigner . While the final report card did n’t contain any substantiation of wrongdoing by Clinton , it certainly did n’t help her withvotersto bring up the subject [ author : Collison ] .
Sen. Sam Ervin , D - N.C. , chairman of the commission that investigated Watergate , once observe that probe sometimes attend to as the " accelerator " to get Congress and the public to support critical reforms . But in other illustration , he warn , probes also provided " a platform for demagogues and the rankest partisans " [ source : U.S. Senate ] .
Historic Congressional Investigations
Here ’s a list of some of the most notable Congressional investigations :
Robert Morris investigation : In 1790 , financier Robert Morris asked Congress to investigate his own treatment of the country ’s money during the Revolutionary War so as to realize his name of alleged impropriety . It was the first - ever Congressional probe [ source : U.S. House ] .
John Brown foray : During 1859 - 60 , a Senate select committee investigated the abolitionist brand ’s maraud on the arsenal at Harper ’s Ferry , Va. It was the first - ever Senate investigating [ root : U.S. Senate ] .
Ku Klux Klan : From 1871 - 72 , a Senate committee headed by Sen. John Scott , R - Pa. , documented the Klan ’s terrorist activities in North Carolina and convert President Ulysses S. Grant to send troop to intervene [ sources : Senate , Pearl ] .
Teapot Dome scandal : A 1923 - 24 Senate investigation exposed tainted deals that gaveoilcompanies access to Naval rock oil second-stringer in the West , and ultimately led to the graft article of faith of Harding Administration Interior Secretary Albert Fall . Fall was the first cabinet member ever to go to prison [ source : Cherny ] .
Army - McCarthy hearings : In 1954 , Sen. Joseph McCarthy , a Republican , investigated alleged communistic influences in the media , the government and the U.S. Army . McCarthy got his comeuppance fromArmychief counsel Joseph Welch , who magnificently asked him : " Have you no sense of decency , sir , at long last ? " [ germ : Politico ] .
Watergate : A 1973 - 74 select committee headed by Sen. Sam Ervin probe the burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and other illegal activities carried out by President Richard Nixon ’s reelection drive . The probe was one of the military unit that eventually drove Nixon to resign from office [ reservoir : U.S. Senate ] .
Intelligence maltreatment : In 1975 - 76 , a Senate select commission probe ill-usage of power by U.S. intelligence and jurisprudence enforcement delegacy , including the FBI ’s COINTELPRO programme that endeavor to disrupt and disbelieve civic right wing figure of speech such as Martin Luther King , Jr. [ reservoir : Senate ] .
Iran - Contra affair : In 1987 , a joint Congressional citizens committee put the public eye on the Reagan Administration ’s covert sales of projectile to Iran and divagation of the proceeds to assist the Nicaraguan Contra rebels [ source : Senate , Politico ] .
Big Tobacco:1994 House hearings led by Rep. Henry Waxman , D - Calif. , call into question fag manufacture executives under oath about whether their mathematical product were habit-forming . He later obtained privy documents showing an manufacture cover - up [ reference : Greenberg ] .
Benghazi : Congress held multiple hearing on the cause of the 2012 attempt on the Libyan mission and whether the State Department could have prevented it . When former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton first attest , she memorably said , " [ T]he fact is we had four numb Americans . Was it because of a protest or was it because of Guy out for a walking one night who settle that they ’d they go kill some Americans ? What departure at this point does it make ? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to forestall it from ever happening again " [ beginning : Politico ] .
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I ’ve been concerned in Congressional investigation ever since I watched the Watergate hearings on TV as a adolescent . As a diary keeper , I ’ve often utilize audition testimony as a origin of data .
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