Page:House Select Committee on Assassinations, final report.pdf/39

 INTRODUCTION

History of the Committee

The House Select Committee on Assassinations was established in September 1976 by House Resolution 1540 94th Congress 2d Session The resolution authorized a 12-member select committee to conduct a full and complete investigation of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr The committee was constituted for the four remaining months of the 94th Congress and it was mandated to report the results of its investigation to the House of Representatives as soon as practicable.

House Resolution 1540 had been introduced a year prior to its passage. It was a refinement of several similar resolutions sponsored by some 135 Members of the 94th Congress Substantial impetus for the creation of a select committee to investigate these assassinations was derived from revelations in the report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities dated April 1976 and released in June 1976. The Senate select committee reported that the Central Intelligence Agency had withheld from the Warren Commission during its investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy information about plots by the Government of the United States against Fidel Castro of Cuba; and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had conducted a counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) against Dr King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The House Select Committee on Assassinations created by House Resolution 1540 officially expired as the 94th Congress ended its term on January 3 1977.

On January 4 1977 a unanimous consent request was introduced to consider House Resolution 9, a resolution to reconstitute the committee. An objection was heard however and House Resolution 9 was not brought to an immediate vote on the floor of the House. It was instead referred to the Rules Committee which began hearings on it on January 25 1977. House Resolution 9, as amended was favorably reported by the Rules Committee as House Resolution 222 on February 1 1977.

The creation of a congressional committee to investigate assassinations as well as issues concerning the nature and cost of the proposed investigations created considerable controversy. House Resolution 222 proposed to constitute the committee for only an additional 2 months to the end of March 1977, so that these issues could be more closely examined. On February 2 1977. House Resolution 222 was considered