Fong’s first committee assignments in the Senate were on the Public Works and the Interior committees. Fong and the other new senator from Hawaii, Oren Long, were placed on these committees upon their arrival to the Senate in September 1959. Fong quickly moved from the Interior Committee to the more powerful and prestigious Judiciary Committee in 1961. In January 1960, Fong was added to the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, an assignment he would retain for the rest of his Senate career. He eventually traded in his Public Works membership for a seat on the Appropriations Committee during the 90th Congress (1967-1968).

The Committees series is organized by the name of the committee. The bulk of the material is related to Fong’s work on the POCS (Post Office and Civil Service) Committee and on the Judiciary Committee. The series includes bills, correspondence, research, publications, and other miscellaneous material, similar to that in Legislative.

The Aging subseries relates to the Special Subcommittee on Aging, which was not a standing committee with legislative authority, but a temporary group meant to investigate or study various issues and report on its findings.

The Appropriations subseries includes material dating from before Fong joined the committee. It is arranged chronologically by the fiscal year for which appropriations were being made. The bulk of the material is from the years 1975 to 1977.

The Judiciary Committee subseries is arranged largely by the names of subcommittees. The Constitutional Amendments subcommittee and Constitutional Rights subcommittee were combined to make one sub-subseries. Of particular note is Fong’s proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to make foreign-born citizens eligible for the presidency. The Immigration and Refugees sub-subseries also reflect Fong’s particular interest in these subjects; additional relevant material is found in the Casework series.

Information on the Watergate scandal of 1973-1974 is also found in Judiciary. Fong’s close relationship with Nixon, as well as his membership on the Judiciary Committee, meant that constituent correspondence on Watergate was heavy. Despite the strong feeling of most correspondents that Nixon should be impeached, Fong maintained his support for Nixon and took the position that Nixon’s actions did not rise to the level of impeachment. Additional material relating to Judiciary Committee work can be found in Office-Staff Files-Don Chang.

The Post Office and Civil Service subseries contains material relating to the committee and its work as a whole—Office, Public Relations, Correspondence, Comprehensive Legislation—as well as relating to the main subject areas within the Committee’s jurisdiction—Census, Post Office, and Civil Service. Fong’s position on this committee was important to the many civil servants and military personnel located in Hawaii, although much of his work on this committee appears fairly routine. A small amount of civil service casework appears in the Casework series.

The Senator’s work on the Public Works Committee largely overlaps with the Grants and Projects series. Matters that were definitely part of the committee’s work appear in the Committees series; all other material, including most Hawaii public works projects, can be found in Grants and Projects-Public Works.