United States Senate Select Committee On Improper Activities in Labor and Management - Disbandment and Legislative and Other Outcomes

Disbandment and Legislative and Other Outcomes

The final report of the Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management was issued on March 31, 1960. At that time, the authority granted by the Senate to the Select Committee was transferred to the Committee on Government Operations.

During its existence, the Select Committee conducted 253 active investigations, served 8,000 subpoenas for witnesses and documents, held 270 days of hearings with 1,526 witnesses (343 of whom invoked the Fifth Amendment), compiled almost 150,000 pages of testimony, and issued two interim and one final report. At its peak, 104 persons were engaged in the work of the committee, including 34 field investigators. Another 58 staffers were delegated to the committee by the Government Accounting Office and worked in Detroit, Chicago, New York City, and southern Florida. To accommodate the huge staff, a corridor was blocked off in the Old Senate Office Building and turned into a suite of offices.

Some observers continued to criticize the Select Committee. In 1961, Yale Law professor Alexander Bickel accused Kennedy of being punitive and battering witnesses, compared his tactics to those of Joseph McCarthy, and declared Kennedy unfit to be Attorney General. At the turn of the century, historians and biographers continued to criticize the Select Committee's lack of respect for the constitutional rights of witnesses brought before it.