my name is christine black and i am the exhibit's curator here at

the capitol visitor center inside the us capitol. we curator at the capitol center. we are in the congressional investigation and exhibition hall and it's an exhibit that speaks to how and why congress does some of his most important jobs. the constitution gives congress the power to legislate but in order to do that congress needsn information on what topics i can legislate on and what needs to be legislated about and congress gets that information so at any given time congress can be investigating for example if a law is being implemented as it was intended to or the cause of the disaster and it gathers information and uses that information to create results. one of our goals for this exhibit was for americans to be

able to get a better understanding of the things that happened here in the capitol,th the things done by their representatives in congress. so because investigations are one of those things that congress does so regularly we wanted to highlight that and we wanted to show historical examples of congress investigating so they can use that example to better understand what's going on here at the capitol. so there are four main reasons why congress investigates. one is fact-finding. investigations can reveal the facts of things that happen and in clarify what happens and why. another reason is oversight. congressional investigations can reveal fraud or corruption in government and can hold officials and agencies accountable to the american

people. legislation is another reason why congress investigates. investigations can provide information about new laws that could be made to benefit the american people and sometimes they also provide information about revising a goose -- existing laws as well and a fourth reason why congress investigates is toat influence opinion. investigations can bring national attention to a subject and that can raise voter support for an issue and can get morety support for a member or parties policies. the constitution does not explicitly state that congress has the power to investigate that the supreme court has ruled that the investigation is essential to congress' ability

to legislate, power that is in the constitution. one of our goals for this exhibit is for americans to better understand what happened here in the capitol building and most investigations can follow a pattern. and recognizing that pattern in these historical examples here can help visitors see what's going on today soda the steps of an investigation tend to locate the most investigations in the first step is that something happens that causes congress to want to get more information. it can be a disaster, it can be an offense, it can just be a growing awareness of a problem but whatever that spark is congress decides that there's a reason to investigate. after that happens then there is another step the authorization to investigate.

committees can investigate anything that's within their jurisdiction but sometimes congress decides to authorize a special committee or commission to take ase closer look at a specific topic. the next step are the hearings and this is a step that many americans may be most familiar with. this is what a lot of americans will see on tv or on the news and hearings are those usually public events where congress gets to hear from witnesses and from experts who know about the things that happened or who know about the problems that need to be solved and congress gathers that information that they can then use. step four is a report. most investigations and in a published report that is used by congress and the american public to better understand what the

information was the congress gathered during the investigation. the reports my out what was discovered and usually also includes recommendations about what congress should do next after the investigation. the last step is legislation. not every investigation ends in legislation that but most of them do unto legislation is when congress acts on those recommendations or acts on the findings of the investigation to solve a problem or to change the law to better address the situation. congress first-ever congressional investigation happened in the late 1700's and it resulted from a military -- congress wanted to know why the military had been defeated so badly by a group of native american tribal nations. so they asked the secretary of war for a paper about it and the

secretary of war didn't know exactly how to respond to that. at this early stage in the american republic congress and the executive branch were stills figuring out what the separation of powers amount and secretary knox went to president george washington and asked how he should respond to the papers. president washington consideredw the question and decided that there was going to the time where the executive branch should not share information if either congress or the courts and the reason for that is because the executive branch, the president has a need sometimes for private counsel from his advisers. the president needs to be able to receive candid advice and know that advice will -- so

washington decided that was a situation that will probably be in the future and he recognized that is an important aspect of the situation however in this particule he could turn over the papers requested to congress and he did so but but i first conversation with president washington and his advisers was the first time that it was ded a concept that became known as an executive privileg tt power of the president to withhold certain communications from congress. in april of 1912 just to few days after the sinking of the titanic the survivors arrived in new york city from the rescue ship. senators from here in washington raced up to new york to beat the survors there. they wanted to find out what

happened and why the ship sank and they wanted to find out from the t people who could tell them what happened on the ship so they went directly to new york to meet them to make sure they have the opportunity to hear from witnesses before they began to defer to their different locations around the world including many who ended up traveling back to new england so the hearings for the titanic investigation started their new york city. they were held in the waldorf-astoria hotel and we have a photograph in the case of those hearings. the senators wanted to know how this came to happen and then what happened afterwards. one of the things they found out during this investigation was how the rescue ship had heard the distress call of the titanic and raced through dangerous icy waters to reach the titanic and

the ship collected all the people that survived the sinking. the captain of the caresia was one of the people who testified toto congress. congress so occur -- was so impressed with the bravery they awarded him a congressional gold medal. we also have a map here that shows the north atlantic and where the ice fields were in that time. this is part of at fact-finding that the committee did in their investigation too find out what was known about ice in the north atlantic prior to the sinking of the titanic. as a result of investigation congress change recommendations about maritime safety and life boat regulations and crew training and it also created the international ice patrolen to

ensure absence of information in the titanic would be something that was repeated and it generally raise the profile of safety legislation and other such laws. amidst the great depression in the early 1930s congress started an investigation into why the stock market had crashed an event that precipitated the beginning of the great depression. and congress investigated what happenedn on wall street and looked into the activities and the procedures that banks and financial businesses used on wall street and they found that there was many financial industry insiders who use their power on wall street to accumulate money to themselves sometimes at the expense of

their own investors. one of the people that congress the senate called to testify withit charles mitchell the president of what was then the largest bank national city and the subpoena of mitchell is there. under questioning bank president mitchell said he acted irresponsible with his investors money. he sold securities as safe bets when hehehe had not vetted them thoroughly to know whether or not they were safe bets. the committee subpoenaed other wall street titan's like for example jpmorgan jr. who admitted under oath he had paid no income taxes for several years and he had given preferential stock to the public figures. so the great depression had impacted more americans than any other economic event had in

those americans were paying close attention to this investigation in the senate about wall street. investigation and the public hearings led to an increase in public support for new legislation that would regulate wall street for the first time and there were several legislative outcomes. one of them was the banking act of 1933 that created the fdic federal deposit insurance corporation and another act that passed was a result of the securities exchange act of 1934 which regulated the trade of securities on the stock market. and the american who has a account has been affected by the legacy of t the law in the aftermath of this investigation.

so on december 71941, there was a surprise japanese attack on the u.s. military base on pearl harbor, hawaii and thousands of people a died and many ships and planes were destroyed. in the aftermath of the attack americans wanted to know why america was so unprepared for this attack. after the war ended congress decided to investigate. he created a joint committee which means members of the house and the senate and the committee looked into what happened before pearl harbor and why they were so unprepared and why the consequences of that attack were so devastating.hi i want to point out this item right here that this machine is one part of a machine created by the arm signals intelligence service that was used to decrypt

japanese code in the months before and after the attack uncurl -- pearl harbor in one of things the things that was discovered during the investigation was purple so congress discovered america had cracked the japanese code was decrypting and it was discovered one of the messages -- messages sent hours before the attack pointed towards military action by japan but american crew was not able to encrypt it and send that to the military commander to in hawaii in time for them to act on it before the attack began. as c a result of information tht congress discovered during the investigation congress passed the national security act of 1947 and this act did a major reorganization of the military branches and national intelligence so it created the

first permanent intelligence agency and it also re-organized the military services to be under one department of defense. just before the united states entered world war ii thehe senae created the special committee to investigate the national defense program for this committee was created to oversee billions of dollars in appropriations that congress had just made for war preparation. this committee was led by senator harry truman of missouri and investigated reports of fraud and inefficiency in war preparation. the committee uncovered numerous instances of corruption and mismanagement and profiteering. it set the standard for congressional oversight operations and was widely praised for it's effective work saving billions of dollars of taxpayer money. it also made senator truman a

naon figure. the truman committee's investigations ranged far and wide and sometimes including household goods like this umbrella that you see here. the tag on the umbrella said it was an illustration of of material and manpower because of that shoddy construction and it didn't last long soer in wartime even regular consumer goods were considered to be critical wartime commodities. the truman committee also requested tips from the american public which he received many have. there are many letters were in individual americans are pointing out things that they had witnessed of, fraud or abuse and they had one letter here from somebody, from a citizen to truman thanking him for his

actions covering the fraud. he was one of many people who was determined to express their tips or their support. at thenv conclusion of this investigation after saving billions of dollars in taxpayer money the senate decided that committee, the truman committee had been so effective at saving money in identifying fraud that they decided to make the committee permanent and they created a permanent subcommittee onig investigations known as the fbi and even today csi is investigating for accountability of government and to uncover and fraud. this photograph is of the heart not a relocation center. it was one of 10 japanese american incarceration camps built in remote areas of the american west during world war ii. future congressman norman mineta was incarcerated with the family

there for several years during the war. so the story between -- about heart mountain and the other incarceration camps began after congress declared war in 1941 which was the start of america's involvement in world war ii. subsequent to that the u.s. government forcibly moved in we located approximately 120,000 u.s. residents of japanese dissent. about two-thirds of whom were americans. presidento franken -- franklin roosevelt gave the executive order for incarceration claimed it was necessary to protect the country from espionage and sabotage. it wasn't until decades after the war in 1980 that congress decided to investigate but at that time there were a number of asian-americans and pacific islander members of congress

including representative normand mineta from california who led the effort to document the harms that have been caused by incarceration and to take action to rectify that. this commission, the commission on wartime relocation and put out a two-part report and this is the report right here. the report concluded that there was no evidence of threat of any military means for the incarceration and it also found it resulted from quote race wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership. the commission recommended an official government apology and also restitution payments to the incoming camphe many of whom had lost their homes or their businesses and

were relocated to the incarceration camp. with the efficacyer of many asin members of congress including norman panetta congress passed the civill liberties act of 1980 and this act did issue the government apology for the incarceration and authorized restitution for survivors. this letter right here is a letter written by president george h.w. bush to one of the survivors of the incarceration camp and it's a letter of apology and includes a payment to the survivor. the objects in this case relate to the investigations into domestic communism in the early 1950s and by senator joseph mccarthy of wisconsin. this is the period of the early cold war when there was an

intense -- of domestic communism there were a number of membersgr of congress who were attempting to influence public opinion to be against the domestic communist holding positions of influence in the united states government and the country as a whole. so senator joseph mccarthy had given a speech claiming there were 205 known communist in the department of state and a senate investigation found those allegations were false. mccarthy still have a lot of public supporting continued his investigation. one of the objects i want to callts out here is this item rit here. this is the seat delivered by one of mccarthy's fellow senators. this is from senator margaret chase smith of maine and smith was one of the only republicans,

one of the first republicans to speak up about mccarthy's investigation. she did so because she was concerned about the way that mccarthy had been using abusive tactics and unsubstantiated allegations into the investigation of prospective communist and the allegations that mccarthy could end up running lights and ruining careers. >> senator. margaret chase smith decided to speak up about mccarthy's tactics and she gave a speech on the floor of the senate. in the speech she decried mccarthy's tactics and she condemns the climate of quote fear, and and smear" that mccarthy had created.

there wasll a few republicans tt jointer at that time. mccarthy's investigations continued and later in 1964 the army mccarthy hearings were televisedev and it was is these televised hearings were americans got to see mccarthy's abusive tactics and unsubstantiated allegations for the first time. this changed public opinion and the viewpoint of mccarthy and within a few months of the hearing the senate had decided and voted to censure mccarthy for conduct unbecoming of a senator. in the early 1950s there's an increasing number of media reports focused on organized crime and there was an increase in americans who are concerned that this crime was becoming a

serious problem and nothing was being done about it. senator of tennessee decided to look into this and he created a committee inmm the senate to investigate organized crime and the mob. part of his investigation involves going to different cities around the country. he went to 14 different cities and the interviewed law enforcement officers, politicians and citizens in these different cities to find out what the state of organized crime was in their areas. they often put suspected mobsters and gamblers on the stand as well and these hearings which were televised captivated the nation. >> the hearing hearings biggest sensation comes from frank castilloro repeated -- he provis a sparkling bit of dramatic reality. >> i have a lot of respect and i

aren't not going to answer the question. i'm going to walk out. >> labor research to see these'' intent than the rest of the united states. so many people are interested in watching the televised hearings that some of them were shown in movie theaters were people who did not have televisions at home could go and watch these hearings. americans tuned in an incredible numbers. one report was that there were more americans watching better watch the w world series. the committees immediate legislative accomplishments were somewhat modest but senator kefauver became a nationally known figure and he adopted as a trademark in kunen skin cap that you've seen and another well-known tennessee and daniel

boone and he worked his kunen skin cap to many of his events. it made him instantly recognizable to the public who knew about his investigations into the mob. the kefauver investigation into organized crime was one of thosn instances where there wasn't a huge legislative output from the investigation but it did have a really big impact on public opinion and the public wanted more law enforcement after hearing about what was actually happening in the world of organized crime.so one of the reasons this exhibit here right now on congressional designations is because it's the 50th anniversary of watergate, one of the most important and consequential oversight investigations that congress has done.

the watergate scandal began with a break-in at the watergate complex in washington d.c. in june of 1972. fight five people who were associated with president richard nixon in the election campaign. it evolved into a battle between congress and the president over access to tapepe recordings that contained evidence about the crime and the cover-up. it concluded with the resignation of president nixon under threat of impeachment. i wanted to point out several documents in this case. one is the security law right here from the watergate complex and in the security log you can see the dates of june 17, 1972 which was the date of the break-in at the watergate hotel. the log has a note written by the security guard from the watergate who made a note in the log that he had seen a piece of

tape on the door that prevented the door from latching and made the door accessible from the outside. first he removed the piece of tape and later thef same night s he's continuing on the grounds he found another piece of tape on the door and that tipped them off that something was happening in the building. he called the police and when the police arrived they found the five burglars inside the democratic national city headquarters inside the watergate complex and they were arrested. this log, the security log marks the very beginning of the watergate scandal the event that triggered all the other events that followed. another item i wanted to talk about here was the tape recorder rightrd here. after the watergate break-in happened, there was investigative reporting that indicated that president nixon might have been aware of it and

may have been involved so the senate created a special committee to look into it. the special committee to investigate presidential campaign activities that are known as the watergate committee. one of the most important facts that the committee uncovered in the investigation was that president nixon had installed a inret tape recording of them the whiteec house to record the conversations he had with them. as soon as the watergate committee discovered the existence of these recordings they wanted to know if they contained evidence that the president himself was personally involved. that's when the senate issued the subpoena right here that you can see on the back of the wall pair. theng first-ever congressional subpoena of the a sitting

president. this is theoror subpoena for the tape recordings and other documents as well. president richard nixon decided to not comply citing executive privilege. executive privilege is a power claimed by president's to withhold communications from congress in the courtroom and the idea behind executive privilege is the president needs to be able to receive candid advice from hison advisers. the present refusal to comply with the subpoena set off a constitutional crisis between congress and the president. subsequently the house judiciary committee in may of 1974 began hearings on whether or not president nixon should be impeached for his involvement in the watergate break-ins and

cover-up. they also issued subpoenas to the present and he declined to comply with those as well citing executive privilege. a couple of months later the house judiciary committee did vote to adopt three articles of impeachment of the president in less than two weeks later president nixon facing sure impeachment and conviction in the senate decided to resign. his resignation letters also here in the case. there was a substantial legislative legacy from this investigation. there was a number of best -- the investigation revealed a number of problems that have been exploited by the nixon administration and there was a number of the need for new legislation. some of the laws that passed in

the aftermath of watergate includes a proxy act of 1974 freedom of information act and the foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978 as well. there were also further investigations that came out of watergate as well. this turned out to be one of the most consequential oversight investigations that congress has conducted and set a standard on how congress conducts it's oversight of the executive branch. on september 11, 2001 there was a terrorist attack in the united states by the terrorist group al qaeda and as a result of this attack in new york city and in00 washington almost 3000 people died. in the aftermath a of that congress did a house and senate

investigation into intelligence failures that allowed 9/11 to happen. in addition, resolve the created an independent bipartisan legislative commission. the commission on terrorist attacks upon the united states. the commission is better known as the 9/11 commission. the 9/11 commission made this map right here to document the events that happened on 9/11. am map shows the path of the flights of the four hijacked planes and those are initially marked as solid lines. at the moment the planes were hijacked the hijackers turned off the transponders that forecast the plains locations and on the map that moment is marked by a change in the flight path from a solid line to a --line. two of the hijacked planes flew into the twin towers in new york

city which cause them to subsequently collapsed. one of the planes was flown into the pentagon in washington d.c. and a fourth plane crashed in a field near shanksville, pennsylvania. the nineur election commission concluded that fourth plane intended target was either the white house or here at the capitolth building. one of the outcomes of the 9/11 investigation was the creation of the a new cabinet level department of theve federal government, the department of homeland security. this chart right here shows, was created while that law was being considered and it shows all of the many different sections of the federal government that has a role to play in the nation's national secit and illustrated how spread out those

responsibilities were and how little coordination there were togo those federal government entities of the new department of homeland security was created to bring all of those different pieces of the national security system all under one person and one leadership. i think it's really important for americans to understand what happened here in the capitol and what our elected representatives do on our behalf. the historical investigations that we have put on display here allow americans to see how this process works and by seeing how congress has acted and how congress has investigated in the past, i hope that americans will be able to better understand what is happening today in

current investigations and that they can use that historical context to know how things are working an' what's actually happening congress and why it's important to them.