Senators grill FBI chief over failed Virtual Case File system

The Justice Department needs a more thorough oversight plan for its information systems overhaul, and Congress might play a larger role in that process, the chairman of a Senate appropriations subcommittee said Tuesday.

"I expect results, and I will do everything I can to ensure that there is congressional oversight for" the FBI's electronic filing system, said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who heads the new Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee.

Like the other senators on the panel, Shelby expressed dismay at the failure of the FBI to successfully upgrade its digital case-management system, and he called for more accountability in Congress and within the agency to follow up. He also told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he should ensure that all the systems under development within the Justice Department are interoperable.

After many delays over five years and $170 million, FBI Director Robert Mueller in March said the agency would abandon department-wide implementation of its Virtual Case File system. It has embarked on building a new system called Sentinel.

During Tuesday's hearing, Mueller declined to publicly disclose how much this new system would cost, citing concerns about procurement "sensitivities." He preferred to give the committee members off-the-record estimates, he said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., accused Mueller of stonewalling his staff, who had been trying to obtain those estimates. Leahy said that worried him because it happened previously when the FBI asked for money for the digital case system.

Oversight of the development of information technology projects at Justice will be increasingly important as the department creates more databases and information-sharing projects across the government as part of the effort to prevent terrorism and protect communities from criminals, panelists said.

While lawmakers have objected to provisions in the Bush administration's $19.1 billion fiscal 2006 budget request that cut state and local law-enforcement programs, the proposal generally asks for increases to several technology and database projects related to its efforts to track terrorists, screen travelers and to protect children against abduction and online sexual exploitation.

The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, thanked Gonzales for the recently announced sex-offender database. The database, which will link and create a central access point for state-created databases, allows individuals to search for convicted sexual offenders in their neighborhoods.

"I am so pleased that you've established this registry," she said. "In Maryland, we've had children die because of sex offenders."

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, also praised the project. He said if the provision does not already exist in current statutes, he would support bipartisan legislation to put sex offenders back in jail if they did not update their addresses in the database when they move residences.

During the hearing, Stevens also made a plug for the renewal of the 16 expiring provisions of the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act.