The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
) is the oldest subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
(formerly the Committee on Government Operations).
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations was created at the same time as the Committee on Government Operations in 1952.
According to Ruth Young Watt
, chief clerk of the subcommittee for more than 30 years, the subcommittee calls itself "permanent" but it really is not; nor is it independent of the full Government Operations (now Governmental Affairs) Committee. The PSI has, however, been a useful and powerful tool for several of the chairmen of the committee because it has a broad mandate to investigate inefficiency, mismanagement, and corruption in government.
The PSI is sometimes thought of as the successor to the U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program
, 1941-1948, also known as the "Truman Committee
". The Truman Committee under then Senator Harry S. Truman
established a process and precedent whereby investigators could obtain copies of an individual or corporate tax return.
Senate War Investigating Committee
When the Truman Committee was terminated in 1948, the Investigations Subcommittee of the Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments
continued that committee's investigation of war contracts and procurement of the Hughes XF-11
reconnaissance aircraft, and the H-4 Hercules
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