power of Congress to inquire into the administration of an executive
department and to sift charges of malfeasance in such administration.


PRIVATE AFFAIRS

Beginning with the resolution adopted by the House of Representatives in
1827 which vested its Committee on Manufactures "with the power to send
for persons and papers with a view to ascertain and report to this House
such facts as may be useful to guide the judgment of this House in
relation to a revision of the tariff duties on imported goods,"[93] the
two Houses have asserted the right to inquire into private affairs when
necessary to enlighten their judgment on proposed legislation. In
Kilbourn _v._ Thompson,[94] the Court denied the right of Congress to
pry into private affairs. Again, in Interstate Commerce Commission _v._
Brimson,[95] in sustaining a statute authorizing the Courts to use their
process to compel witnesses to give testimony sought by the Commission
for the enforcement of the act, the Court warned that, "neither branch
of the legislative department, still less any merely administrative
body, established by Congress, possesses, or can be invested with, a
general power of making inquiry into the private affairs of the
citizen."[96] Finally, however, in McGrain _v._ Daugherty,[97] the power
of either House "to compel a private individual to appear before it or
one of its committees and give testimony needed to enable it efficiently
to exercise a legislative function belonging to it under the
Constitution, * * *"[98] was judicially recognized and approved.


PURPOSE OF INQUIRY