“On November 27, 2002, thanks mostly to pressure on the White House from the 9/11 families and [Senator John] McCain [R-AZ], [President] Bush reluctantly signed the bill creating the 9/11 commission. The bill was not what [Senate Majority Leader Tom] Daschle [D-SD], McCain, and the families had wanted. It provided the commission with an insultingly small budget–$3 million over eighteen months, compared with more than $40 million for the federal commission that investigated the Challenger [space shuttle] disaster. ‘The budget was a joke’, Daschle said. And the bill imposed strict limits on the commission’s powers to subpoena documents and witnesses.”
– Philip Shenon, The Commission, Page 31