Truman Committee The Truman Committee , formally known as the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program , was a United States Congressional investigative body headed by Senator Harry S . Truman . The bipartisan special committee was formed in March 1941 to find and correct problems in US war production — problems with waste , inefficiency and war profiteering . The Truman Committee proved to be one of the most successful investigative efforts ever mounted by the US government : an initial budget of $ 15 , 000 was expanded over three years to $ 360 , 000 to save an estimated in military spending , and thousands of lives of US servicemen . Chairing the committee helped Truman make a name for himself beyond his political machine origins , and was a major factor in the decision to nominate him as vice president to become president after the death of Franklin D . Roosevelt . Truman stepped down from leadership of the committee in August 1944 , to concentrate on running for vice president in that year ' s presidential election . From 1941 until its official end in 1948 , the Truman Committee held 432 public hearings , listened to 1 , 798 witnesses and published almost 2 , 000 pages of reports . Every committee report was unanimous , with bipartisan support . Background . The war production efforts of the US had previously been subject to congressional oversight during the Civil War ( 1861 – 1865 ) and following the Great War ( 1915 – 1918 ) , but each of these were considered accusatory and negative . During the Civil War , the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War hounded President Abraham Lincoln regarding his moderate stance on the prosecution of the war ; the committee members wanted a more aggressive war policy . The many secret meetings calling officers away from their duties caused rancor among the Union ' s military leaders , and delayed military initiatives . Confederate General Robert E . Lee said that the harm caused to the Union effort by the Union ' s own Joint Committee was worth two divisions to the rebel cause . Two decades after the Great War , the Nye Committee found that heavy US investments in the United Kingdom had predisposed US bankers and arms manufacturers to back the UK rather than Germany . The 1934 – 1936 investigation , led by Senator Gerald Nye , caused a noninterventionist backlash against any US involvement in European wars , and resulted in a much lower level of American military preparedness when European conflict erupted again in 1939 . In 1940 , Truman was reelected to the Senate as a Democratic politician who was not endorsed by , and who did not back Democratic President Franklin D . Roosevelt . Truman heard about needless waste and profiteering from construction of Fort Leonard Wood in his home state of Missouri , and he determined to see for himself what was going on . He traveled in his personal Dodge car not only to Missouri but to various military installations from Florida through the Midwest ; approximately of driving . Everywhere he went he saw hard - luck poverty among the working people contrasted with millions of government dollars going to military contractors . Too many of the contractors were reaping excess profits from cost - plus contract s , without being held accountable for the poor quality of goods delivered . He saw that too many contracts were held by a small number of contractors based in the East rather than distributed fairly around the nation . Returning to Washington , D . C . , Truman met with the president who appeared sympathetic to Truman ' s wish for corrective action ; the president did not , however , want Truman to reveal to the nation the wasteful nature of Roosevelt ' s own federal programs . In early 1941 , Representative Eugene Cox , a vocal anti - New Deal Democrat , proposed an investigative committee run by the House of Representatives , intending to expose federal waste in military spending . Learning of this likely source of embarrassment , Roosevelt joined with Senator James F . Byrnes to back a more friendly committee run by the Senate , one with the same stated purpose but with Truman as leader . Truman was seen by Roosevelt as less ideological and accusatory , more practical . On February 10 , 1941 , Truman spoke to the Senate about the problems he had seen on his long drive , and he put forward the idea to have a special oversight committee on military contracts . This was the first new idea that Truman presented to the nation , and he received a positive reaction . Other senators were favorable to the notion that their views about spending would be heard , that valuable military contracts would be distributed more evenly to each state . Truman also talked to John W . Snyder and other attorneys of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and Defense Plant Corporation about how to avoid the problems of lost paperwork , wasted time in investigation and lost productivity experienced during the Great War . He was advised that a swift - acting oversight committee would be a great benefit to the nation ' s war production . Military leaders were apprehensive of Truman ' s plan — they pointed to the Civil War committee which had such a negative effect on war production . Truman said he was not going to take that committee as his model , and he spent time in the Library of Congress researching the Civil War - era Joint Committee so that he would better understand what were its flaws , what made it harmful to war production . Among army and navy leaders , General George Marshall was the lone voice of support for Truman ; Marshall said to his peers that it " must be assumed that members of Congress are just as patriotic as we are . " Establishment . On Saturday , March 1 , 1941 , the Senate voted unanimously ( only 16 out of 96 senators were present ) in favor of establishing the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Contracts Under the National Defense Program , with Truman as chairman . It quickly became known as the Truman Committee . Roosevelt and his New Deal advisers had pushed for a majority of New Dealers as committee members , but Republican Party opposition , and Truman ' s own energy worked against that goal . The committee was instead formed of a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans , pragmatic men who Truman selected for their honesty , practicality and steady work ethic . Truman asked for $ 25 , 000 to empower the committee ' s actions . Byrne wanted to limit the committee by giving it only $ 10 , 000 . A compromise of $ 15 , 000 was reached . Serving under Truman were senators Tom Connally , Carl Hatch , James M . Mead , Monrad Wallgren , Joseph H . Ball and Owen Brewster — the majority Democratic , the latter two Republican . Connally was the only senior senator , the rest were juniors . Others on the committee included chief counsel Hugh Fulton , attorneys Rudolph Halley and Herbert N . Maletz , and staff member Bill Boyle from the Kansas City , Missouri , political machine . Fulton , a Justice Department prosecutor with a reputation for tenacity , asked for $ 9 , 000 as salary , 60 % of Truman ' s total funding . Truman assented , hoping to increase the committee ' s budget after showing early results . Fulton proved to be a tireless , productive investigator — he and Truman were both early risers and much of the committee ' s agenda was completed between the two of them conferring in the morning . Investigator Matt Connelly was brought onto the staff without diminishing the budget because he was " borrowed " from the senate committee investigating campaign expenditures ; he later served as Truman ' s vice - presidential executive assistant , then as his presidential appointment secretary . By June 1941 after more borrowing and deal - making , Truman had assembled a staff of 10 investigators and 10 administrative assistants . Truman ' s first target was chosen to give him quick results — he knew that an investigation of waste and inefficiency in military housing projects was going to save a great deal of money and serve as good publicity for the Committee . On April 23 , 1941 , he began conducting hearings , focusing on cost overruns related to the construction of cantonment s and military facilities at places such as Fort Meade in Maryland , Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in Pennsylvania , and Camp Wallace in Hitchcock , Texas . General Brehon B . Somervell , head of the Quartermaster Corps , was also in charge of the construction of military housing . He complained about the investigation , saying that the Committee was " formed in iniquity for political purposes . " The Truman Committee determined that the construction of military housing would be better managed by the Army Corps of Engineers , and this change was implemented by the Army . Somervell would later acknowledge that the Committee ' s investigation of military construction saved $ 250 million . Because of its quickly demonstrated success , the Committee ' s funding was increased to $ 50 , 000 towards the end of 1941 . Republican senators Harold Hitz Burton and Homer Ferguson joined , as did Democratic Senator Harley M . Kilgore . The investigative staff expanded by 50 % . Truman invited any interested senators to attend the hearings , held in the Senate Office Building in Room 449 where the Committee was based , or , for larger hearings , in the Senate Caucus Room . Even Senator Nye came to visit , the former leader of the senate investigative committee that Truman had carefully studied and subsequently denounced as " pure demagoguery " . Unlike other congressional hearings , witnesses were generally treated with respect by the Truman Committee , not rushed , nor subjected to insulting or accusatory language . Even so , Truman revealed his persistence and quiet determination . Roosevelt had created a confusion of agencies to supervise war production . In January 1941 he ordered into being the Office of Production Management ( OPM ) , headed by labor leader Sidney Hillman and business executive William S . Knudsen ; an inefficient dual - leadership arrangement that suited Roosevelt ' s wish to prevent a challenge to his leadership . In July 1941 he formed another government department , the Supply , Priorities , and Allocations Board ( SPAB ) led by businessman Donald M . Nelson . The Truman Committee directed its attention on these " alphabet soup " organizations after hearing complaints of inefficiency . In August 1941 following a report by Truman to the Senate on the progress of the investigative committee , Republican Senator Arthur H . Vandenberg probed Truman to name the " chief bottleneck " of all of the problems related to defense contracts . Vandenberg asked if the single point of responsibility was the White House , meaning Roosevelt , and Truman replied " yes , sir . " Otherwise , the Truman Committee ' s reports were designed to keep the president from being blamed for cost overruns , inefficiency and waste . Wartime work . After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into direct involvement in what was now being called World War II , Secretary of War Henry L . Stimson predicted the Truman Committee would be a needless drag on war production . Under Secretary of War Robert P . Patterson agreed , calling upon Roosevelt to exert pressure on the Senate to abolish the committee . Patterson said that supplying the Truman Committee " all the information it desires " would " impair " the government ' s ability to respond quickly to the needs of war . Roosevelt by this time realized the value of the Committee ; rather than striving against it he publicly praised its progress . The Truman Committee issued a report to the Senate on January 15 , 1942 , detailing its achievements to date and its ongoing investigations . The Committee had begun in August 1941 to assess Roosevelt ' s ungainly OPM , and by January 1942 the conclusion was ready for publication . The report severely criticized the OPM : " Its mistakes of commission have been legion ; and its mistakes of omission have been even greater . " The dual leadership chain - of - command and the divided loyalties of Hillman and Knudsen were described as causing friction and wasted effort . It was a thorough indictment of poor administration . Diplomatically , Truman made certain that Roosevelt had access to an advance copy of the report . Roosevelt was thus able to save face by disbanding the OPM just prior to the release of the report , replacing both the OPM and SPAB with the War Production Board under former SPAB chief Nelson . In May 1942 the committee was reorganized . " Contracts Under " was dropped from the name to make it the " Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program " . Democratic Senator Clyde L . Herring joined the effort . The Committee generally followed a pattern of sifting through the great quantity of received mail and other messages from whistleblower s to determine the largest problems facing the US military war effort . Investigators were sent to confirm that a real problem existed , then , at one of the Truman Committee ' s official fortnightly meetings , one of the senators was offered the task of heading a formal investigation of that problem . Sometimes several senators joined forces to cover the most complex issues . Senator / investigator teams would travel to various US cities to visit factories , construction sites , military bases and war production plants where they would talk with managers and workers . A report would be prepared , and an early copy of the report would be sent to the leaders who were discussed in the report , so that they would have a chance to prepare themselves for the consequences . The reputation of the Truman Committee grew so strong that fear of an investigation was sometimes enough of a deterrent to stop underhanded dealings . An unknown number of people performed more honestly in war production because of the threat of a Truman visit . In March 1943 at the second birthday of the Truman Committee , " Time " magazine put " Investigator Truman " on the cover , showing Truman ' s craggy face squinting in the mid - day sun , in the background a spotlight shining on government and industry . The issue carried an associated article titled " Billion - Dollar Watchdog " , describing the Committee " as one of the most useful Government agencies of World War II " and " the closest thing yet to a domestic high command . " The article raised Truman ' s importance in the eye of the man on the street , cementing his well - earned position as one of America ' s most responsible leaders . After Truman . In August 1944 to focus on campaigning for the Roosevelt - Truman ticket , Truman stepped down as chair of the investigative committee , and Fulton resigned as chief counsel . Truman was also concerned that his running for vice president on the Democratic Party ticket would call into question the bipartisan nature of the Committee . The Committee members composed a laudatory resolution thanking " Colonel Harry S . Truman " for his service , writing " well done , soldier ! " Senator Mead took over as chairman to continue the work . Truman was elected vice president , then upon the death of Roosevelt in April 1945 he immediately became president . World War II ended in August 1945 . After the war was over , investigator George Meader became chief counsel from October 1 , 1945 to July 15 , 1947 . On March 1 , 1948 , the Senate formed the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations , under Senator Ferguson and chief counsel William P . Rogers , the subcommittee answering to the larger Committee on Government Operations . This new subcommittee subsumed the old remit of the Truman Committee and became responsible for its records . The Truman Committee ' s final report was issued April 28 , 1948 . Legacy . The Truman Committee is known for having indirectly helped Truman become president . In May 1944 , " Look " magazine asked a pool of 52 Washington correspondents who were the top ten civilians , after Roosevelt , helping the war effort . Truman was named ; he was the only congressman on the list . A few months later , Truman was among the few names put forward as possible vice - presidents under the seriously ill Roosevelt ; a vice - presidency that was very likely to turn into a presidency . Truman ' s broad experience with industrial , economic and military issues , gained by three years of investigative work with the Committee , served to make him one of the most well - informed men in US government , and gave him a reputation for fair dealing . The largely apolitical Truman Committee is also known for setting a high standard of practicality and neutrality in congressional investigative committees . Later observers have occasionally compared the situation faced by the Truman Committee in the early 1940s with later political and military issues . In January 2005 in the face of an additional requested by President George W . Bush to increase the Iraq War , columnist Arianna Huffington recommended that the resolution sponsored by Senators Larry Craig and Dick Durbin be passed to create a bipartisan oversight committee " modeled on the one Harry Truman created during WW II to root out war profiteering . " The next month , Huffington said " it ' s a good time to open a history book " to learn about how a Truman - style committee might be used to counter the Iraq War ' s US - based problems with " waste , fraud , ineptitude , cronyism , secret no - bid contracts , and profiteering cloaked in patriotism . " Huffington ' s endorsement came three months after a press release by Taxpayers for Common Sense titled " Bring Back the Truman Committee " in which Truman ' s record of stopping war profiteering in the 1940s was said to be " the most famous and the most successful " example , a model needed as a corrective measure to stem US military contractor improprieties in the War on Terror . The problem was still not solved by 2007 when Senator Charles Schumer wrote , " The lesson of the Truman Committee is sorely in need of learning today " . He described how Republican Representatives blocked " for more than a year " a bipartisan proposal for an investigative committee to look into military " scandals and abuses " in Iraq . When Senators Jim Webb of Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri - who holds the same Senate seat as Truman did - formed a Truman - type committee in January 2008 , the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan , President Bush said it was " a threat to national security . "