Final answer:
Congress conducts investigations for purposes such as oversight, reform, and policy inquiry, not to seek partisan political advantage.
Investigations like those into the IRS or Benghazi incident may have had underlying political motives, which are not legitimate reasons for Congress to conduct inquiries.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question asks which activity is not a reason why Congress may choose to conduct investigations. Congress conducts investigations for a variety of legitimate reasons, such as improving governmental operations, overseeing executive actions, and examining issues of national significance.
One activity that is not a reason Congress would conduct investigations is to seek a political advantage purely for the sake of one party over another, which moves away from legitimate inquiry into partisan spectacle.
For example, the investigation into the IRS's scrutiny of certain tax-exempt groups or into the Benghazi incident could be seen as activities wherein Congress may have had underlying motives unrelated to their primary functions of oversight, reform, and policy specialization.
Congressional investigations are meant to serve the public interest by checking potential abuses of power and informing policy decisions rather than acting as platforms for partisanship.