Committee Chair Questions FBI Powers

June 2, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The House Judiciary Committee chairman said Saturday the Justice Department has gone too far in giving the FBI new authority to monitor Americans and risks a return to the "bad old days" of abuses in domestic surveillance.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., told CNN he wants Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller to testify before his committee about why "regulations on domestic spying that have worked so well for the last 25 or 26 years have to be changed."

"I believe that the Justice Department has gone too far," Sensenbrenner said, adding that the regulations that are being relaxed had been developed under a Republican president, Gerald Ford, to bring an end to FBI excesses.

Sensenbrenner was reacting to a Bush administration decision last week to issue new surveillance guidelines that allow the FBI to monitor Internet sites, libraries, churches and political organizations to help prevent acts of terrorism. Ashcroft said the new power is needed to effectively combat terrorism, and would not allow abuses like those of the past.

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