Select Committees or Special committees are appointed to tackle topics for which there are no standing committees. In the two years covered by the first congress (1789–1791), there were six hundred select committees. The 1821 committee on the admission of Missouri lasted only seven days and helped draft the Missouri Compromise. With the increase of regular standing committees the number of select committees has decreased. Some of these committees have been charged with investigating specific events.

House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) was established in 1938 and charged to “investigate the extent, character, and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States, the diffusion within the United States of subversive and un-American propaganda that is instigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our constitution….” HCUA became a standing committee in 1945 and wasn’t disbanded till 1975. This committee would issue a number of reports from lists of organizations they believed to be communist to hearings on suspected Communist activities. Members of unions, people involved in theater, movies, and government employees were only a few of the groups investigated.  In 1947 the committee focused on Hollywood and asked the now infamous question “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party of the United States?" Although often seen as an example of McCarthyism the Senator never served on the House committee.

The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.. The committee report was 12 volumes and a single-volume summary report but when first issued some material was redacted. Their findings were similar to those of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission).

Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Watergate Committee) was founded in 1973 by Senate Resolution 60 to investigate the Watergate scandal.  Hearings lasted for two weeks and were aired on national television. The committee’s final report including legislative recommendations were submitted on June 27, 1974.

In the years following Watergate, the most high profile select committees have taken on a decidedly partisan tone, with one side often claiming government wastefulness or that their future candidate is being unfairly targeted while the other insists that their investigation gets at the very heart of executive abuses of power or malfeasance. The select committees and their resulting reports on Iran-Contra, Benghazi, and most recently the January 6th insurrection have unfortunately begun to define an era of ever-increasing schism and inability to work across the aisle.

It’s worth remembering that there are less high-profile, but still important select committees, like the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, that are established now-and-then to address the most critical and urgent problems of our time.

For a more extensive and thorough history of select committees over the entire length of US history, please visit the National Archives guides to the records of the Senate and the House on the history of their select committees.

Warns Dies Committee. Washington, D.C., Aug. 18. Surrendering the Labor Department's complete file on Harry Bridges to the Special House Committee on Un-American activities today, Thomas B. Shoemaker warned the investigators that revelation of its contents might result in violence to persons involved. Chairman Dies said the committee would comply with the request as far as it is possible as witnesses in the bridges investigation have been threatened. 8/18/38\. hec 24965 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hec.24965  https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/hec.24965/

Press room, perhaps in the Senate, during the Watergate hearings. LC-DIG-ppmsca-53339 https://www.loc.gov/item/2017659349/