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The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (JCAE) was created in the wake of the explosion of the first atomic weapon over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. The committee existed from 1946 to 1977, and has been described as one of the most powerful congressional committees in history. The United States Congress gave the JCAE exclusive jurisdiction over "all bills, resolutions, and other matters" related to civilian and military aspects of nuclear power, and made it the only permanent joint committee in modern times to have legislative authority.
The panel coupled these legislative powers with exclusive access to the information upon which its highly secretive deliberations were based. As overseer of the Atomic Energy Commission, the joint committee was also entitled by statute to be kept "fully and currently informed" of all commission activities and vigorously exercised that statutory right, demanding information and attention from the executive branch in a fashion that arguably has no equivalent today.
One major power wielded by the JCAE was the "Legislative Veto." This unique power enabled the JCAE to influence policy decisions while matters were pending. This enabled the JCAE to act as a co-decision maker with the executive branch rather than only providing congressional oversight of actions that had already occurred. The legislative veto power was later found to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in 1983.[1]
During the 1970s, the committee's role in shaping nuclear policy began to diminish after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was created to replace the Atomic Energy Commission. Congress soon transferred the bulk of the joint committee's jurisdiction over civilian nuclear power to other standing congressional committees in the House and Senate. The joint committee was finally abolished on August 5, 1977.
[edit] Notable Members
[edit] Committee Members, 1946-1977
The joint committee had equal representation between both the House and Senate, with 5 majority and 4 minority members from each house. The committee was chaired by a senator from the majority party until the 83rd Congress, when the chairmanship began to alternate between a majority representative and majority senator.
[edit] 79th Congress, 1946
[edit] 80th Congress, 1947-1948
[edit] 81st Congress, 1949-1950
[edit] 82nd Congress, 1951-1952
[edit] 83rd Congress, 1953-1954
[edit] See also
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from 9/11 Commission Recommendations: Joint Committee on Atomic Energy — A Model for Congressional Oversight?, Congressional Research Service, August 20, 2004, a public domain work of the United States Government.
