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The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Reform Committee Thursday approved a stand-alone version of a Senate-approved amendment that would extend the life of the special watchdog office investigating the Iraq reconstruction effort.

"We need to make sure we keep the heat on," said Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, after the backup measure cleared the committee on a voice vote in a session off the Senate floor.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., would keep the office of the Special Inspector for Iraq running until October 2008. The Senate move to extend the office was triggered by the revelation that it is due to go out of business as of October 2007 under a House Republican-sponsored amendment inserted into defense legislation passed by Congress in September and signed by President Bush.

The extension won initial Senate approval in an amendment attached to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill that passed the chamber earlier this week. The stand-alone version was intended to put pressure on the House to go along with the extension when the conference committee meets to negotiate a final bill.

The sponsor of the House measure, House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has argued that the office was supposed to be temporary and that now was the time to start transferring its jurisdiction to the inspector general offices of the State and Defense departments.

The office, headed by Republican lawyer Stuart Bowen Jr. and staffed with 55 auditors and accountants, has found millions of dollars worth of fraud and abuse in the reconstruction program since being set up in early 2004.

The investigations have led to four criminal convictions. The office is currently looking into fraud allegations against a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation.

A House measure calling for the extension has been introduced by Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who will become chairman of the House Armed Services Committee when the Democratic-controlled Congress convenes in January.

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