On February 5, 1973, Senator Edward Kennedy offered Senate Resolution 60 to establish a Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities to investigate campaign activities related to the presidential election of 1972. Traditionally the sponsoring member presides over an inquiry. Majority Leader Mike Mansfield wanted to avoid the possibility that the committee would seem unduly partisan because of Kennedy’s presidential aspirations, and instead offered the chair to Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina. Well-qualified to head the investigation, Senator Ervin was a former North Carolina Supreme Court justice, a self-proclaimed “country lawyer” with a degree from Harvard Law School, and widely regarded as the Senate’s constitutional expert. At 76 years old he did not aspire to the presidency. His reputation among his Senate colleagues was, according to Secretary of the Senate Frank Valeo, “unassailable.” On February 7, 1973, the Senate voted unanimously to create the select committee. The resolution empowered four Democrats and three Republicans to subpoena witnesses and materials, provided them with a $500,000 budget, and required them to submit a final report by February 28, 1974. The resolution granted the committee the power to investigate the break-in and any subsequent cover-up of criminal activity, as well as “all other illegal, improper, or unethical conduct occurring during the Presidential campaign of 1972, including political espionage and campaign finance practices.” The committee submitted its final report including legislative recommendations on June 27, 1974. The Watergate committee’s final report recommended legislative action in three areas: regulation of campaign activities and contributions; the establishment of a permanent special prosecutor; and the creation of a permanent congressional legal service. In the years following the Watergate investigation Congress passed legislation aimed at strengthening the legislative branch’s oversight powers. In 1974 Congress overrode a presidential veto and revised the Freedom of Information Act, providing the public and the media with new tools to access information held by the executive branch. The 1976 Government in Sunshine Act required federal agencies to hold their meetings in public.