Church Committee

A select committee of the US Senate that in 1975–1976 investigated abuses by federal intelligence agencies; it was named after its chairman, Senator Frank Church.

The Senate set it up on 27 January 1975. The committee investigated, among others, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); it exposed the SHAMROCK and MINARET programmes (NSA) and COINTELPRO (FBI), and its final report of 29 April 1976 contained 96 recommendations. The results included the creation of the SSCI in 1976 and the FISA Act of 1978.¹