Inspector General Glenn A. Fine (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice)

A sense of complacency about potential terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction has developed in the federal government following the Sept. 11 attacks, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine told members of Congress Wednesday.

An Inspector General’s report issued last month found that most DOJ agencies were unprepared to respond to a WMD attack and only the Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken appropriate steps to prepare for a potential attack. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had been in charge of coordinating the department’s response, but many other parts of DOJ were not even aware that ATF was supposed to lead the effort.

“Our report identified significant deficiencies in the department’s preparations to respond to a WMD attack,” Fine told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. “These deficiencies could have disastrous consequences because the use of a weapon of mass destruction poses a serious potential threat to the United States.”

Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D- Md.), who chaired the hearing, called the findings for the Inspector General’s report disturbing.

“We know that terrorists are training every day to launch another attack in the United States, and [the] first line of defense must be to disrupt and prevent a successful terrorist attack,” Cardin said. “But we also have to make sure we are ready and prepared [for] a terrorist attack at home, whether it is from a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapon.”

Cardin said he was concerned that the ATF — the lead agency on DOJ’s WMD response — had made so little progress in preparing for an attack. The hearing came the same day at a new name emerged as a possible candidate to take over ATF.

“There’s a lot of things going on in the Department of Justice,” said Cardin. “But I really want to focus in on how we’re going to implement this.”

Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) — the only other senator to attend the hearing — said the depth of the department’s commitment to the issue was “highly questionable.”

Fine said he believes the Justice Department is taking the report’s findings seriously and taking steps to remedy the deficiencies.

Associate Deputy Attorney General James A. Baker. (C-SPAN)

Associate Deputy Attorney General James A. Baker, who also testified Wednesday, called Fine “dogged”and said he expects the Inspector General’s office will hold DOJ’s feet to the fire.

Baker said Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler and others in DOJ leadership were not happy to read the results of the report and had prioritized the issue.

“The Acting Deputy Attorney General has been clear: The crush of other business is no excuse. The Department must review and resolve the issues identified by the Inspector General,” Baker testified.

Grindler established the Emergency Preparedness Committee, which Baker chairs. That committee, said Baker, has been meeting all summer and will issue a final report by Oct. 10.

Attorney General Eric Holder said shortly after the report was issued that the Justice Department would deal with the issue “very quickly.”

Responsibility for the government’s WMD response is dispersed among too many agencies, said Randall J. Larsen, chief executive officer of the WMD Center, a non-profit research organization he founded with former Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fl.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.).

He noted that more than two dozen officials had a piece of the WMD puzzle. Larsen suggested that the Vice President should be designated as the point person for coordinating the government’s response.

“There’s no head coach,” Larsen said. “Nobody is in charge.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed legislation Thursday that would create a new section within the Justice Department Criminal Division to handle human rights crimes.

The Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009, which was approved by voice vote, would lay the groundwork to fold the Office of Special Investigations and Domestic Security Section into the new section. The Office of Special Investigations — which was created to probe Nazi criminals living in the United States — focuses on U.S. citizens who committed human rights crimes. The Domestic Security Section prosecutes non-U.S. citizens who violated human rights laws and are in the United States.

The new section would prosecute torture, genocide, child soldiers and war crimes that are committed by any person who is in the United States. The bill is sponsored by Senate Judiciary human rights and the law chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.)

Criminal Division chief Lanny Breuer said last month that he supports the establishment of a human rights section. Here are his remarks from a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on human rights enforcement:

“While no structural reform can take place without the approval of the Office of Management and Budget and notification to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, based on my review, I have recommended to the Attorney General that our already outstanding efforts in this area would be enhanced by a merger of the Domestic Security Section and the Office of Special Investigation into a new section with responsibility for human rights enforcement, MEJA/SMTJ cases, and alien-smuggling and related matters.  That new section would be called the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. The Attorney General has indicated his support for this change and the Department’s strong commitment to enforcing human rights, and we expect to move forward with this.”

This post has been updated and corrected from an earlier version.

Senate Democrats introduced legislation Thursday that would establish the same sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine and crack offenses.

The Fair Sentencing Act, sponsored by Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and nine other Democrats, would end the 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine penalties enacted in the 1980s. The bill would also trigger a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the possession of 500 grams of either of the substances.

The decades-old law gives the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the possession of five grams of crack cocaine as it does for the possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine. Democrats have said the law tends to disproportionately harm blacks, because crack is generally used in poorer urban communities.

“The sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine has contributed to the imprisonment of African Americans at six times the rate of whites and to the United States’ position as the world’s leader in incarcerations,” Durbin said in a statement. “Congress has talked about addressing this injustice for long enough; it’s time for us to act.”

The cosponsors of the bill are Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Judiciary crime and drugs subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Judiciary panel members Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) and Al Franken (D-Min.) Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) are also cosponsors.

The House Judiciary Committee approved its version of the legislation in July. Unlike the Senate bill, the House legislation eliminates mandatory minimum sentences for cocaine and crack offenses.

The Justice Department supports Congress’s efforts to eliminate the differences between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said at a House hearing in May that the current sentencing policies are “hard to justify.”

The Office of Justice Programs nominee told a Senate panel today that she would make sure Justice Department grant money is used effectively if the Senate confirms her.

Laurie O. Robinson (DOJ)

Laurie O. Robinson said during the question and answer portion of a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing that Justice Department officials must be “good stewards” of the billions of taxpayer dollars that OJP allocates to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies.

“It is imperative that there be a system of internal controls and strong accountability to guard against waste, fraud and abuse,” Robinson said in her written testimony. “Building on my prior experience, this will be one of my highest priorities if confirmed, working closely with the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General.”

The OJP nominee said in her written testimony that she would also make a “What Works Clearinghouse” of summarized Justice Department research available to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to ensure that taxpayer money is going towards effective programs.

Robinson, who is currently OJP Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, was OJP Acting Assistant Attorney General from January until her nomination in September.

She previously served as the OJP Assistant Attorney General during the Clinton administration. During her leadership from 1993 to 2000, the annual appropriations for the office grew from $800 million to more than $4 billion, according to her biography.

Panel Democrats — including Sens. Ben Cardin (Md.), Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.) — praised Robinson for her past service. ”You bring a wealth of experience to this position,” said Cardin, who chaired the hearing.

Robinson would succeed Bush OJP head Jeffrey Sedgwick, who resigned in January.

Read more about Robinson here.

The Senate today confirmed Justice Department Civil Rights Division nominee Tom Perez by a 72-22 vote.

Tom Perez (maryland.gov)

Sixteen Republicans voted in favor of his confirmation. Twenty-two Republicans opposed him, including Senate Judiciary Committee members Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.).

Coburn had put a hold on the nominee, who as a former director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had supported providing translators for undocumented immigrants receiving medical care.

One of Perez’s sponsors, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), stepped in to try to assuage the conservatives’ concerns. Cardin arranged a private meeting between the nominee, Coburn, Sessions and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), after the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed Perez on June 4. Coburn and Sessions were the only senators to vote against Perez in committee.

But after the meetings, the Oklahoma Republican said he was still “concerned with the direction of his leadership.”

“I think Mr. Perez is a fine man,” Coburn said today on the Senate floor. “But I think his view point is a disaster for the future of the country in terms of what is a civil right and what isn’t.”

Sessions, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on the Senate floor he was concerned that Perez would not be able to put aside his “partisan beliefs” in his DOJ post. In June, the Alabama senator questioned Perez’s prior work on the board of CASA de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group.

“The president has chosen this nominee, someone who has a record of and a reputation for very strong political activity,” Sessions said today on the floor. “That’s not disqualifying. But it’s a matter that I am concerned about.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member also said the Justice Department’s handling of the New Black Panther Party case has drawn into question whether the Civil Rights Division is driven by politics.

The dispute stems from a May decision by the Justice Department to dismiss most of a government voter intimidation case filed at the end of the Bush administration against members of the militant black-power group, two of whom were videotaped outside a Philadelphia polling place last November in quasi-military garb. We reported yesterday that Democratic members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights accused the agency’s conservative majority of acting in an “improperly partisan” manner in challenging the Obama Justice Department’s handling of the New Black Panther Party case.

“It is critical that the division be free of partisanship and not be used as a tool to further the agenda of one group or another, one ideology or another,” Sessions said on the Senate floor.

Cardin disagreed with Sessions and Coburn, noting in a floor speech that the nominee has support from several former Civil Rights Division leaders and Louis Sullivan, Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George H.W. Bush.

“We have a quality person who will return the … the Civil Rights Division to its historic role, increasing the morale and professionalism in that department,” Cardin said on the Senate floor. “I’m proud to support him.”

Leahy said in a statement that he was disappointed about the amount of time it took to get Perez confirmed. President Obama nominated Perez March 31.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chair said it took a much shorter time to get Ralph Boyd, President Bush’s first Civil Rights Division nominee, confirmed. Leahy said Boyd received the unanimous support of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was confirmed the next day by voice vote.

“No shenanigans. No partisanship. No posturing for narrow special interests,” Leahy said in a statement.

The full Senate still must vote on four more assistant attorneys general. OLC nominee Dawn Johnsen has waited the longest for a vote in the full Senate. Obama nominated her for the post Feb. 11.

Here are the Republicans who voted in favor of his confirmation:

Alexander (R-TN)
Bond (R-MO)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)*
Graham (R-SC)*
Grassley (R-IA)*
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)*
Hutchison (R-TX)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)*
Lugar (R-IN)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Snowe (R-ME)
Voinovich (R-OH)

*-Denotes members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Here’s the complete roll call vote:

Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein announced yesterday the creation of an asset forfeiture and money laundering section for his office. Read the news release here.

Rod Rosenstein (DOJ)

The new section will work with state and local authorities to handle federal, civil and criminal forfeitures and provide guidance on money laundering and other cases involving financial crimes.

Rosenstein — a Bush holdover supported by Maryland Democratic Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin — told the Maryland Daily Record that he has “beefed up” his office’s work on these crimes because the Justice Department has encouraged the U.S. Attorneys to “follow the money” in mortgage fraud and other financial criminal cases.

“It takes a certain amount of expertise to trace that money and be familiar with the asset forfeiture provisions to be able to seize that money,” Rosenstein told the newspaper.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stefan Cassella will lead the unit. He was sworn in yesterday after serving in the Justice Department Criminal Division as assistant chief of the asset forfeiture and money laundering Section from 1994 to 2002 and the deputy chief from 2002 to 2007.

He will oversee Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Kay, a 19-year veteran of the office specializing in asset forfeiture, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christen Sproule, who started at the office in January to assist with asset forfeiture and restitution matters. The section will also include supervisory paralegal LaTonia Kelly and paralegal specialist Naquita Ervin.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) cannot vote on presidential nominations. But Smith is trying to hold up Justice Department Civil Rights Division nominee Thomas Perez until DOJ gives the House member more information about the dismissal of voter-intimidation charges against members of the militant New Black Panthers.

Tom Perez (maryland.gov)

Smith urged the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee today to put a hold on Perez. The House Judiciary ranking member said the Justice Department responses to letters he sent on May 28, July 9 and July 17 about the dismissal have been “overly vague, raising concerns about possible political interference in this case.” Read all of the letters from Smith and DOJ here.

Lamar Smith (Gov)

Smith and other House Republicans have alleged for months that politics played a role in the case dismissal. The Washington Times reported last month that Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, a political appointee, approved a recommendation by Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King to drop voter intimidation charges against members of the militant New Black Panthers.

But King, who’s been acting head of the division since January, told Perrelli she had “concerns” about the case during a regular review meeting, The Times reported. King recommended some of the charges be dismissed, and Perrelli agreed. Read our previous report about The Times article here.

The Justice Department has denied the accusations made by Smith. DOJ spokesperson Tracy Schmaler told Main Justice today “top career attorneys in the Civil Rights Division” made the decision that some of the charges be dismissed.

In a four-page letter sent July 13, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said DOJ officials will meet with Smith to further discuss the matter and he explained how DOJ handled each of the New Black Panthers members listed in the initial DOJ complaint.

King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson (Getty Images)

The complaint said Malik Zulu Shabazz, Minister King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson brandished weapons and used “coercion, threats and intimidation” to harass voters, both black and white, at a Philadelphia polling place last Nov. 4. The defendants wore “military-style uniforms” including black berets and combat boots, the complaint said.

The Justice Department essentially won the case when the defendants failed to contest it. But DOJ decided to file for dismissal of the case instead of getting a default judgment. The dismissal did not extend to one defendant, King Samir Shabazz. Read the DOJ’s filing here. Read our original report on the “controversy” here.

“We assure you that the Department is committed to comprehensive and vigorous enforcement of both the civil and criminal provisions of federal law that prohibit voter intimidation,” Weich said in the letter. “We continue to work with voters, communities, and local law enforcement to ensure that every American can vote free from intimidation, coercion or threats.”

Smith also requested in the July 9 letter that the DOJ Office of Inspector General investigate the matter. Inspector General Glenn Fine wrote in a July 21 letter that he forwarded Smith’s request to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility. Fine said OPR — not OIG — was the appropriate office to handle Smith’s request.

Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have not jumped on the dismissal like Smith has, but they have not been too keen on Perez.

Perez was reported out of committee June 4 by a 17-2 vote. Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) were the only senators to oppose the Civil Rights Division nominee in committee.

Jeff Sessions (Getty Images)

Sessions, the ranking member of the committee, called into question last month Perez’s prior work on the board of CASA de Maryland, an influential immigrant advocacy group that has come under fire by anti-immigration groups.

Coburn said last month that Perez, former director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has supported providing translators to illegal immigrants who are receiving medical care. The Oklahoma senator, a medical doctor who operated on people without U.S. citizenship, said providing illegal immigrants with interpreters would “wreck health care.”

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Coburn and Sessions got a “much clearer view” of the Civil Rights Division nominee from a meeting they had with Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Perez. Sessions said it was “a good meeting.”

A Republican spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

Joe Palazzolo contributed to this report.

The Washington Post opinions page expressed dismay at the Senate over the body’s failure to move on Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel nominee Dawn Johnsen, calling the delay “unconscionable.” Read the staff editorial from today here.

Dawn Johnsen (Indiana University)

The newspaper said the Senate should confirm all the DOJ nominees reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee before it starts its month-long recess Friday.

These nominees include:

-Dawn Johnsen, Office of Legal Counsel (Reported out of committee: March 19)

-Thomas Perez, Civil Rights Division (Reported out of committee: June 4)

-Mary L. Smith, Tax Division (Reported out of committee: June 11)

-Tristram Coffin, Vermont U.S. Attorney (Reported out of committee: June 18)

-Joyce Vance, Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney (Reported out of committee: June 18)

-Preet Bharara, Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney (Reported out of committee: June 18)

-B. Todd Jones, Minnesota U.S. Attorney (Reported out of committee: June 25)

-John Kacavas, New Hampshire U.S. Attorney (Reported out of committee: June 25)

-Christopher Schroeder, Office of Legal Policy (Reported out of committee: July 28)

We’ve been reporting for weeks on the delays that are preventing votes on Johnsen, Smith, Perez and the five U.S. Attorneys.

A Senate leadership aide told Main Justice today that Senate leaders are still trying to reach a deal that would bring DOJ nominees up for votes before the recess.

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have agreed that there are U.S. Attorney nominees who should be voted on before the recess. Read our report here. The Vermont senator said yesterday it “wouldn’t be responsible” of the Senate if it didn’t vote on U.S. Attorney nominees before senators leave town this week.

The Senate Judiciary chair pointed his finger at the Republicans last month for delaying votes on the appointees.

Johnsen has received the most flack from the GOP because of her position on abortion rights and her strong disapproval of the Bush administration legal memos used to justify torture against suspected terrorists. The Post said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been “less than assertive” in trying to bring her nomination up for a vote.

Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have criticized

Mary L. Smith (Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman)

Smith for her lack of tax experience. She is a former in-house counsel at Tyco International but has no prosecuting experience. The Justice Department acknowledged she is not a “traditional tax lawyer,” but argued that her extensive securities law and litigation experience qualifies her for the job.

Tom Perez (maryland.gov)

Republican senators have called into question Perez’s prior work on the board of CASA de Maryland, an influential immigrant advocacy group that has come under fire by anti-immigration groups. Republican Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Sessions — who both voted against the Civil Rights Division nominee in committee — met with Perez, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) to clear up any concerns about the appointee. Sessions said it was “a good meeting,” and Cardin said last week a vote on Perez before the August recess could be possible.

Read our previous post on the delays here.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said in an interview today with Main Justice that a vote on Justice Department Civil Rights Division nominee Thomas Perez could happen “as early as next week.”

Tom Perez (maryland.gov)

The Maryland senator said confirming Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is a top priority for the Senate before it starts its month long recess next week. But a vote on Perez before the August recess is still possible, he said.

“I hope that we can move it before the recess,” Cardin said. “We’re going to try.”

Perez is currently Maryland’s labor secretary. Cardin, a Senate Judiciary Committee member from Perez’s home state, said he had several meetings with Republicans who opposed the Perez nomination, which was reported out of committee on June 4 by a vote of 17-2. Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) were the only senators to oppose Perez in committee.

Sessions, the ranking member of the committee, called into question last month Perez’s prior work on the board of CASA de Maryland, an influential immigrant advocacy group that has come under fire by anti-immigration groups.

Coburn said last month that Perez, former director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has supported providing translators to illegal immigrants who are receiving medical care. The Oklahoma senator, a medical doctor who operated on people without U.S. citizenship, said providing illegal immigrants with interpreters would “wreck health care.”

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Coburn and Sessions got a “much clearer view” of Perez from one of the meetings they had with Cardin. Sessions said that that the meeting he had with Cardin, Kyl and Coburn was “a good meeting.”

Cardin said he wasn’t aware of any current efforts by the Republicans to delay a vote on Perez.

Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Dick Durbin has been one of the Senate’s most passionate voices against Bush-era detention policies. But don’t expet the Illinois Democrat to use his chairmanship of a newly revived Senate Judiciary human rights subcommittee as a partisan bully pulpit.

Durbin (in background) gave up the crime subcommittee to Specter

Instead, Durbin said he will work with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to find common ground on an agenda. He’s taking the gavel of the subcommittee for a second time, after giving up chairmanship of the plum Judiciary crime subcommittee to party-switching Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.)

The human rights panel plans to address child soldiers, genocide, sexual violence and human trafficking — all concerns Coburn shares as well. In particular, conservatives and liberals have come together to fight international human trafficking, including the forced prostitution of women.

“While we had some legislative success, far more needs to be done,” Durbin said in a statement last month after he received the subcommittee gavel again. “We will continue to work on these and other issues as we try to ensure that America remains committed to human rights both at home and abroad.”

Coburn said he is please the subcommittee has been revived.

“We have a lot of issues we need to look at it,” Coburn said in an interview.

Tom Malinowski, Washington director for the Human Rights Watch which worked with the panel in the past, said he hopes the reestablished subcommittee will continue the work it did in the last Congress that led to the enactment of the Genocide Accountability Act and the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, which targeted world leaders who engaged in severe human rights abuses.

He said that while the subcommittee tackled many weighty issues, it avoided some topics that could have caused severe divisions between subcommittee Democrats and Republicans, such as the Bush administration’s policies on indefinite prisoner detentions, which Durbin openly criticized.

“Durbin made a point of choosing issues that Sen. Coburn was interested in working on,” Malinowski said.

Helping the senators to develop an agenda will be majority chief counsel Joseph Zogby and minority chief counsel Brooke Bacak. Zogby was previously the chief counsel for the human rights and the law subcommittee and then served the brief stint as Durbin’s chief counsel on crime and drugs subcommittee. Mary Harned previously held the minority post.

The Justice Department will also continue to work with the subcommittee. During the 110th Congress, members of the Civil and Criminal divisions often testified before the subcommittee.

“We look forward to working with the subcommittee on human rights and the law on the important issues it may address,” DOJ spokesperson Alejandro Miyar wrote in an e-mail.

Although there will be some familiar faces working with the subcommittee, not all the subcommittee members from the 110th Congress have rejoined the panel.

There were six Democrats and five Republicans on the subcommittee in the 110th Congress. Now, joining Durbin and Coburn will be four Democrats and two Republicans – Sens. Specter (D-Pa.), Russ Feingold (D- Wisc.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) Graham and Sen. John McCain sponsored legislation in 2005 that would have banned the harsh interrogation methods used against suspected terrorists.

Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) are missing from the subcommittee because they no longer sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Also, Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will not return to the panel.

The decision of Specter to leave the Republican Party led to the reestablishment of the subcommittee in May, after Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) disbanded the two-year-old panel in February.

“With the change of administrations, and the transition to this new Congress, we are not continuing the subcommittee,” Leahy said in testimony before the Judiciary Committee in February. “No one should confuse that with a lack of commitment to the human rights agenda.”

The subcommittee was the loser in a game of musical chairs.

Biden was the chair of the crime and drugs subcommittee in the 110th Congress. He relinquished his gavel to Durbin after becoming vice president. The Illinois senator then had to give up his human rights and the law subcommittee chairmanship because Democratic rules didn’t allow him to hold more than one Judiciary subcommittee gavel.

Durbin, in turn, relinquished his crime and drugs subcommittee to Specter in May. He’d held hearings on sentencing dispairities between federal crack and powder cocaine offenses and Mexican drug cartels before handing the gavel to Specter. Durbin said his said the move was not meant to appease the long-serving Pennsylvanian, who’d been stripped of his seniority by the Democratic caucus after switching parties.

“I raised this issue long before feathers were ruffled,” Durbin said at a pen-and-pad session with reporters in May.