Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



131 



Committee to determine what employment may be 

 furnished Federal prisoners, created by House Con- 

 current Resolution of March 2, 1923, and many others 

 that might be mentioned. 



In setting up these joint committees, it is not an 

 unusual practice for the act or resolution creating them 

 to provide that their members shall be selected from 

 the correspo7iding standing committee of the two cham- 

 bers. Thus it was provided that the Joint Committee 

 on the Federal Reserve Sj'stem, created by Act of March 

 4, 1923, should be composed of tliree members of the 

 Banking and Cui-rency Committee of the Senate, to be 

 appointed by the presiding officer of the Senate and 

 five members of the Banking and Currency Committee 

 of the House to be appointed by the Speaker of the 

 House. Occasionally, as in the case of the Joint Sub- 

 conanittee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, created 

 by Joint Resolution of July 20, 1916, the provision was 

 made that the members should be selected by the chair- 

 men, respectively, of the Senate and House Conunittees 

 on Interstate and Foreign Commerce- 

 It would appear that there are many cases where the 

 jireferable mode of procedure would be to create a 

 joint committee instead of one or more special com- 

 mittees by a chamber acting independently. A reading 

 i)f the list of special and select committees in existence 

 in 1937 given above shows that both Houses had at that 

 time special committees for the investigation of wild- 

 life resources and the reorganization of the adminis- 

 trative branch of the Government. Some of the rea- 

 sons why preference is so often given to the creation 

 of separate special and select committees are : The 

 general desire of the two chambers to act independ- 

 ently in the framing of legislation to be considered by 

 them; the greater ease with which action by a single 

 House can be secured : and the desire of the member 

 initiating the proposal for the starting of the investi- 

 gation that he shall be made chairman of the com- 

 mittee and .secure the publicity and prestige resulting 

 from the work.-^ 



Administrative Agencies 



When the nature of the inquiry is such that infor- 

 mation does not have to be elicited by the exercise 

 of the inquisitional powers of Congress in the way of 



" An interesting example of this matter of which House should 

 provide the chairman of a joint committee bfing jit issue is provided hy 

 the Joint Committee on the Reorganization of the Administrative 

 Branch of the Government listed above. Senator Smoot headed the 

 Senate delegation on the Joint Committee and desired to be designated 

 as chairman. The House, unwilling to do this, secured the passage of 

 an amending resolution providing for the designation by the President 

 of a representative to act with the committee. The President designated 

 Walter F. Brown, afterwards Postmaster General, as hia representative, 

 and the committee then proceeded to select Mr, Brown as its chairman, 

 thus furnishing probably the only example where a person who was not 

 a member of either House of Congress served as the chairman of a 

 Congressional committee. 



the cross-examination, of witnesses and the compelling 

 <jf tlie production of records and papers, it not in- 

 fre(iuently happens that the best method of procedure 

 i,s for Congress to direct the securing of the data by 

 some one of the administrative agencies. An impor- 

 lunt example of where this procedure has been followed 

 by Congress was the direction given, by the act of 

 January 29, 1907, to the Secretary of Commerce and 

 Labor to make a comprehensive investigation of the 

 conditions of labor of women and children, a direction 

 which led to the prei^ai'ation of a report by the Bureau 

 of Labor, in 19 volumes, covering every phase of the 

 subject (S. Doc. 645, 61st Cong., 2d sess., 1910). 



With the establishment of the Federal Trade Com- 

 mission as a dependency of Congress rather than as 

 part of the administrative establishment proper and 

 the endowing of it with broad investigatory powers, 

 Congress has shown a tendency to make use of it, 

 rather than its own standing or special committees, 

 for the prosecution of certain inquiries. A notable 

 instance of where it has acted in this way was the 

 direction given to this body by Senate Resolution 83, 

 1928, supplemented by Joint Resolution 115, approved 

 June 2G, 1934, to make a detailed study of certain 

 features of public utility corporation practices. In 

 [jiirsuance of these directions, the Federal Trade Com- 

 mission made the most exhaustive investigation of 

 public utility corporations ever attempted in this coun- 

 try. Its report to Congress embraced 84 reports ex- 

 clusive of 7 volumes of exhibits, appendices and 

 index.-'"' While the present study was being made the 

 question whether the proposed investigation of the 

 Tennessee Valley Atithority should be made by the Fed- 

 eral Trade Commission, a special committee of the 

 Senate, or a special joint committee of the two Houses 

 was being debated. 



It is hardly necessary to say that the two Houses 

 of Congress, by resolution, and their committees and 

 committee chairmen, in a more informal manner, are 

 constantly calling upon the President and administra- 

 tive officers for information desired by them. In some 

 cases, response to their calls involves the making of 

 special investigations by the officers called upon. 

 Whether or not the President, in given cases, is under 

 the constitutional obligation to supply the informa- 

 tion called for has, on various occasions, been a matter 

 of controversy. The clause of the Constitution bear- 

 ing on this matter reads "[The President] shall, from 

 time to time, give to the Congress information of the 

 state of the Union, and recommend to their consid- 

 eration such measures as he shall deem necessary and 



» Though transmitted at different dates, the final report being trans- 

 mitted in 193G, all the volumes bear the document number S. Doc. 92, 

 TOth Cong., 1st sess., 1028. 



