Democratic & Republican Senators Oppose Policy on U.S. Attorneys

[Doondoo]

Congressional Democrats and some Republicans are trying to change part of the USA Patriot Act that allows the Bush administration to fire and replace federal prosecutors indefinitely without Senate confirmation.

Freshly briefed by the Justice Department on the forced resignations of some of the seven U.S. attorneys since the act took effect, Senate Democrats planned to bring a bill to the floor Thursday that would impose a 120-day deadline on the amount of time a replacement could serve without Senate confirmation.

After that, an interim replacement would be named by a U.S. District Court, a policy Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and some Republicans say could lead to the appointments of prosecutors for reasons other than their qualifications.

Democrats say that's just the problem with the policy under the terror-fighting law that went into effect in March.

Since then, seven U.S. attorneys have been fired, some without cause, Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty told the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats contend that prosecutors were forced to resign to make way for Republican political allies, and that the White House slipped the provision into the Patriot Act to permit such indefinite appointments.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/15/AR2007021500197.html