Robert Torricelli: “when this Chamber was new and Members of the Senate were gathering in their first years, they were confronted with the…”

“when this Chamber was new and Members of the Senate were gathering in their first years, they were confronted with the reality of a civil war which had consumed over 860,000 lives and the rebuilding of our Republic. Even with those daunting tasks, there was a recognition that somehow the institutions of our Government had failed to deal with the crisis, to avert the struggle. Even in that atmosphere, those who preceded us created a board of inquiry as to the reasons of the war and how it was executed and what might lie ahead for the country. That civil war debate created a foundation which through two centuries has created a consistent pattern for this Congress. In times of national trouble or trauma, part of dealing with the realities of our problems and preparing for the future required a dispassionate analysis of the problem. While survivors were still being taken out of the North Atlantic from the sinking of the Titanic, a board of inquiry met to determine the failures of maritime safety. Three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a board of inquiry began to examine why our Nation was not prepared and how the institutions of our country had failed to respond to the looming threat and the reality of the attack.”