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GOP blocks Senate bill prompted by prosecutor firings

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 16, 2007

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans blocked a bill Thursday that would have curbed the Justice Department's power to fire and replace federal prosecutors. Democrats had sought to give the courts a role in the appointments of U.S. attorneys, to GOP opposition.

The objection by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to the proposal was long anticipated. So Democrats used the occasion to complain anew about the firings of at least seven prosecutors, some without cause, under a little-noticed part of the Patriot Act.

Democrats say Attorney General Alberto Gonzales used the law to get around the Senate confirmation process and install Republican allies.

A bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., says a replacement U.S. attorney could serve no longer than 120 days without confirmation. After that time, an interim replacement would be named by a U.S. district court.

Republican and Democratic leaders sought a compromise that might lengthen the 120-day period or curb a district court's appointment power, but those efforts were abandoned early Thursday, officials on both sides said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that if the Justice Department does not provide detailed performance reports on the fired prosecutors, the Senate Judiciary Committee would subpoena them.

Newly empowered Democrats are seeking to curb what they say is the Bush administration's virtually unchecked power during the years of GOP congressional control. The version of the Patriot Act that contains the disputed provision passed last year.

Senators from both parties, including the Republican author of the law, say they were unaware of the way the Justice Department would use that rule.

Gonzales has said that he intends to submit the name of every newly installed prosecutor to the Senate for confirmation.

Democrats contend that prosecutors were forced to resign to make way for Republicans' political allies and that the White House slipped the provision into the Patriot Act to permit such indefinite appointments.

Federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president, but had been subject to Senate confirmation.

[Last modified February 16, 2007, 01:17:57]