WASHINGTON — Senior lawmakers say a secret chapter of a congressional investigation into the 9/11 attacks that has been locked away in a Capitol vault for 14 years – the so-called 28 pages that probe possible Saudi connections to the hijackers – will be released in the coming days.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, told Roll Call that the document would likely be made public by the end of the week. The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam B. Schiff of California, said the release was “fairly imminent.”

The lawmakers, both of whom support making the pages public, said late Wednesday that the final decision rests with congressional leadership, and that discussions have taken place with House and Senate leaders about the correct procedure for releasing the document.

The report was drawn up by a joint commission composed of members of the Senate and House intelligence committees. The panel released its final report in late 2002 – except for the 28 pages that President George W. Bush classified over concerns that they might expose methods and harm ties with Saudi Arabia.

The report is a congressional document, and therefore the authority to release the document rests with Congress, not the White House. But the committee that drew up the report no longer exists, so it can’t green-light the publication.

The content of the secret pages has become the subject of intense speculation over the years for a public still hungry for answers about how 19 men – 15 of them from Saudi Arabia – managed to go unnoticed for months in the United States before killing nearly 3,000 people.

Schiff said the chapter “reads like a police report,” while Maine independent Sen. Angus King said that, in his judgment, “there’s not anything startling.”