Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/33

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 Force LegiZ½to and the public welfare demanded [hat the whole situation be investigated and speedily reformed, Senator Truman proposed that a Senate committee should be organized and given full power to investigate the national defense programJ . On 22 February 1941 Truman submitted Senate Resolution No 71, which called for the formation of a committee of five Sena- tors, appointed by the President of the Senate, to be "authorized and directed to make a full and complete study and inves. tigation of the operation of the program for the procurement and construction oI suppiles, materials, mumtrans, vehicles, air- craft, vessels, plants, camps, and other arti- cles and facilities in connection with the national defense .... "Items to be investi- gated included: 1) types and terms oi gov- ernment contracts; 2) methods of awarding such contracts and selecting contractors, 3) utilization of small business fatalities; 4) geographic distribution of contracts and locations of plants and facilities; 5) effects of the program on labor and the migration of labor; 6) performance of contracts and the accountings required of the contractors; ) behests accruing to the contractors; 8) practices of management or labor, and pices, ices, and charges, nterfering with the defense program oz unduly increasing its costs; and 9) such other matters as the committee considered appropriate. The ex- penses oi this conunlttee were not to ex- ceed $25,000 and were to be paid from [he Senate contingent fund. The Coraraittee on Military Affairs amended the resolution to have the Corn- m/tree composed of seven senators rather than five,  and the Corertattoo to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate reduced the expense item to $15,010. With these amendments, Senate Resolution No. 71 was passed virtually with- out discussion on I March 194[, and the Special Committee to Investigate the Na- tional Defense Program was authorized to carry on its investigations during the 7?th and succeeding Congresses  rhe authority of the Truman Committee was limited to investigation, with reports Lata In 1941 the Snate increased the membership ef the Coraretiree to and recommendations to be made [o the Senate. It had no powers oœ aupervlsion and its investigaxve power was Iimxted gener- ally to he logistics of the national security program. One oœ the Truman Commttee's meal Lmporant decisions was tha it would not interfere m any way wih military strat- egy or tactics--the Committee intended to avoid the mistakes made by [he Committee on the Conduct of the Civil War which had attempted to tell the Umon generals how to fight their batIes and conduc their campaignsJ . Between 15 April 1941 and 15 January 1942, when the Truman Committee pub- lished its first annual report, it held hear- rags on 80 days dunng which 252 witnesses were heard. The subject of the hearings was the progress of the entire national de- fense program, but the committee concen- trated on certain aspects of the national defense effort, such as the shortage of aluminum (of vital concern to the airerSt industry), the construction of camps and cantonments, and, most important of all, the absence of effective over-all direction of the defense effort, a condition winch ap- peared to be due to the lack of authority of the Office of Productnon Management (O?M) and to its hydra-headed direction. After Pearl Harbor many people felt that the committee should be dincontinued; they believed that nvestigatmns and critmsms had no place in an al-out war effort. The members of the Truman Committee de- reded, however, that there was stfil a place for constructive criticism, and decided to continue their activities. Senator Truman continued to serve as chairman of the com- mittee until he resigned to become the Democratic candidate for Vice PresidentJ  Among other phases of defense produc- tion investigated by the Truman Committee were such items as land acquisition and disposition, lend-lease, hght metals, ma- chine tools and dies, magnesium, 100-oe- fane gasoline, petroleum, plan[ con- struction, ½he procurement program, and rubberW Aluminum, airgraft production, and labor-management relations continued to be subjects of committee investigation throughout most of he war yearsJ  THIS PAGE Declassflied lAW EO12958