One change came 365 days before its report; three came after
Source. Senate.gov investigations pages and Senate Stories; GovInfo; CRS RL33715
Method and data
Method. Days are the date of the first linked change minus the date of the final report. The first linked changes are the Banking Act of 1933, the 1974 campaign act amendments (P.L. 93-443), S.Res. 400 (1976), a Senate resolution, and P.L. 102-88 (1991). Linkage follows the Senate.gov, CRS and GovInfo pages cited. The four inquiries are those on Senate.gov’s 25-entry selected list for which a cited page prints the report date and dates a specific linked law or resolution; the rest were not measured, so the exhibit shows how far four intervals differ and not a sample. The selected list also names the Securities Act of 1933 (approved May 27, 1933), which would put the banking interval at −385. The Senate passed its version of the 1974 amendments 77 days before the report.
| Item | Authorized | Final report | First linked change | First linked change, item | Kind of change | Days, final report to change | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banking inquiry (1932) | March 2, 1932 | June 16, 1934 | June 16, 1933 | Banking Act of 1933 | law | −365 | The Senate.gov selected-investigations list also names the Securities Act of 1933 (approved 1933-05-27, 48 Stat. 74), 20 days before the Banking Act; counted from it the interval is −385. The exhibit uses the Banking Act, the law dated on the inquiry’s own page. The printed report, S. Rept. 73-1455, is dated “June 6 (calendar day, June 16), 1934”; the interval counts from the calendar day, June 16, the date Senate.gov gives, and from the legislative day, June 6 (the date on the SEC Historical Society’s copy of the introduction), it would be −355. |
| Watergate (1973) | February 7, 1973 | June 27, 1974 | October 15, 1974 | Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974 (P.L. 93-443), enacted | law | 110 | days_report_to_change counts to enactment. The Senate passed its version, S. 3044, 53–32 on 1974-04-11 (Voteview, 93rd Congress Senate vote 732), 77 days before the final report. |
| Intelligence inquiry (1975) | January 27, 1975 | April 29, 1976 | May 19, 1976 | S.Res. 400 creating the Select Committee on Intelligence (Senate vote) | Senate resolution | 20 | A Senate resolution, not a law. Senate.gov also lists the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (P.L. 95-511, 1978-10-25) among the legislation that followed. |
| Iran-Contra (1987) | November 17, 1987 | August 14, 1991 | Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (P.L. 102-88), covert-action provisions | law | 1,366 | The resolution creating the committee is not printed on the cited pages (hearings ran 1987-05-05 to 1987-08-03), so the month columns are blank. A 1987 executive directive and a 1988 Senate bill preceded the law; Congress approved covert-action changes in 1990 and the President pocket-vetoed them (CRS RL33715). Counted from the end of hearings (1987-08-03) the interval is 1472. |
