House and Senate conferees agree on FBI oversight

House and Senate conferees approved a draft report Thursday on a Justice Department authorization that strengthens oversight and accountability at the FBI. But the conference remains divided on issues such as creating new judgeships and funding drug treatment and prevention programs.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said conferees and staff would continue negotiating over a final conference report. Contentious issues are routine in Justice Department authorizations. That is why Congress has not passed an authorization bill for the department in more than 20 years.

The measure (H.R. 2215) on the table now would implement reforms at the FBI, including expanding the authority of the department's inspector general to investigate FBI agents, and modernizing FBI computers.

"By making sure that the FBI implements the reforms recommended by the Webster Commission and by beefing up the FBI police, we can help prevent the recurrence of an incident like former FBI supervisor and Russian spy Robert Hanssen from being able to just walk out of FBI headquarters with highly classified information over a 20-year period," Leahy said.

The Webster Commission, chaired by former CIA and FBI director William Webster, was established by Attorney General John Ashcroft after Hanssen's arrest in Feb. 2001 on espionage charges.

In addition to the accord on FBI oversight, the conferees also reached agreement on areas ranging from intellectual property to law enforcement, Leahy said.

But a number of issues still separate the conferees. One of those is a proposal to create up to 16 new District Court judges' positions. "There are a lot of people on this [the Senate] side who don't want to give them all to this president," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. He added that states like California, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, and Texas, among others, are short of judges.

A related issue that conferees also have not agreed upon is reform of the federal judicial system. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., told conferees that unless steps are taken to make the administration of justice more efficient, the court system will not be able to take effective advantage of newly hired judges.

Another unresolved conference item is language on funding for drug treatment and prevention programs. Some of that language is taken from legislation (S. 304) that Hatch and Leahy introduced in the Senate last year.