attack on Pearl Harbor, tended to reduce the role of the Congress to that of mere ratification of executive action, the latter usually taken without regard to possible Congressional objections. Reorganization of the Congress resulting from the Joint Committee study and report was in response to a growing awareness of the need to improve the functioning of Congress as an organ for control of a wartime executive. An important recent statute within this category is the Civil Rights Act of 1957.[533] This Act created a Commission on Civil Rights, empowered only to investigate, to study, to appraise and make findings and recommendations. It was not to be a Commission for the enforcement of civil rights. Specifically, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 directed the Commission to: “(1) investigate allegations in writing under oath or affirmation that certain citizens of the United States are being deprived of their right to vote and have that vote counted by reason of their color, race, religion, or national origin, which writing, under oath or affirmation, shall set forth the facts upon which such belief or beliefs are based; “(2) study and collect information concerning legal developments constituting a denial of equal protection of the laws under the Constitution; and “(3) appraise the laws and policies of the Federal Government with respect to equal protection of the laws under the Constitution.”[534] The Commission was instructed to submit to the President and Congress a comprehensive report of its activities, findings, and recommendations not later than two years from the enactment of the Act. The Commission’s report was submitted to the Congress on September 9, 1959,[535] just in time to win the Commission a two year lease on life. Many of the statutes in this category are directed at securing information on which to base natural resources or scarce materials policy. In 1947 the President was requested to prepare, through the appropriate departments of the Government, a comprehensive plan for the development of the resources of Alaska, and the expansion and development of the facilities of commerce between the United States and Alaska and within the Territory. The President was requested to have the report ready for the consideration of the second session of the Seventy-fifth Congress thirty-five days after Congress reconvened.[536]