60 



6. Identification of the best sources of the requu-ecl information. 



7. Procurement of the information : as pubUshed or unpublished 

 documents, testimony, and witnesses avaihxble for questioning. 



S. Processing (ordering, analysis, and interpretation) of the 

 information. 



9, Statement of findings. 

 10. Establishment of policy decision or decisions. 

 Whether for investigations and oversight, or for the testing and 

 evaluation of legislative proposals, the merit of an orderly and struc- 

 tured system of 1:his sort seems compelling. When, at the earliest point 

 of contact, an issue can be identified as of major concern or widespread 

 impact, and congressional investigation of it planned according to an 

 orderly sequence, the outcome is likely to be of superior value. Diffi- 

 culty is still to be anticipated, even today, with issues like AD-X2 

 in which a seemingly minor grievance evolves by stages into a front 

 page controversy. It would have been unreasonable to have expected 

 the Senate committee or its staff to have foreseen the scale of agitation 

 that would ultimately result from a complaint over a test of a battery 

 powder. It is much easier to relate the implications of the entire 

 controversy, as they appear in retrospect, than it would have been 

 at the time. While recognizing this, it is still valid to suggest that a 

 searching analysis of these implications, taken at the earliest moment 

 after the issue became momentous, might have served a useful purpose. 



