Congress is moving swiftly to curtail the attorney general’s power to appoint interim U.S. attorneys, and new revelations involving presidential adviser Karl Rove added fresh fuel to the widening controversy.

Democrats reacted with outrage to a report Thursday that linked Rove to an administration proposal to let go all 93 U.S. attorneys at the beginning of President Bush’s second term.

“It is now imperative that [Rove] testify before Congress and give all the details of his involvement,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. “If the White House prevents Karl Rove from testifying, it will be thumbing its nose at the American people and the rule of law.”

The administration is expected to send more internal White House and Justice Department documents to Capitol Hill on Friday. White House counsel Fred F. Fielding is also due to give an answer to lawmakers by Friday as to whether Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and deputy White House counsel William K. Kelley will testify voluntarily.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., is prepared to subpoena Rove if necessary.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto disputed a news report alleging that an e-mail exchange showed Rove was more involved in the proposal than the administration has previously admitted. The Justice Department released the e-mail Thursday evening.

“The e-mail does not directly contradict nor is it inconsistent with what we have said,” Fratto said. He added that the subject came up between the November 2004 election and the start of Bush’s second term in January 2005. “Karl’s recollection was that Harriet [Miers] raised it with him in passing, asking him what he thought, and he thought it was a bad idea.”

According to Fratto, Rove visited the office of then-deputy White House counsel David Leitch in early 2005 to ask about the status of the proposal. Leitch was not there, so his assistant e-mailed him to tell him of Rove’s inquiry. Leitch passed that on to Kyle Sampson, then the chief of staff to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, in a Jan. 6, 2005, e-mail. Three days later, Sampson replied to Leitch that he had discussed the idea with Gonzales about two weeks before that.

Democrats said the apparent level of Rove’s involvement belies testimony before the House Judiciary Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee by Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General William E. Moschella. The March 6 testimony suggested the plan to fire U.S. attorneys originated in the Justice Department.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., said, “This goes all the way to the top of the Justice Department and to the most senior White House staff. They also raise extremely troubling questions about the truthfulness of testimony given to the United States Congress.”

Legislation to roll back a law (PL 109-177) allowing the attorney general to install U.S. attorneys who can serve indefinitely without Senate confirmation is advancing in both the House and Senate.

Republicans are conceding that the flap over U.S. attorneys, combined with a March 9 Justice Department report that the FBI has abused its investigative authorities, have made it all but impossible for them to resist legislation rewriting the law on interim appointments of U.S. attorneys.

On another front, Conyers and several other Democrats sent letters to Gonzales on Thursday asking him to respond to a report that he advised Bush to shut down an internal Justice Department investigation related to the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens.

Republican lawmakers openly questioned Gonzales’ effectiveness in representing the Justice Department on Capitol Hill. “The attorney general’s credibility on the Hill is damaged, and his credibility with the American people is damaged,” said Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. “And I would guess his credibility with the president is damaged.”

Senate leaders have struck a deal for floor consideration of a bill (S 214) that would repeal the relevant provision in the 2006 law that reauthorized expiring Patriot Act provisions. The Senate will take up the measure March 19 and vote March 20 on two amendments. One, by Arizona Republican Jon Kyl, would prevent judges from appointing temporary U.S. attorneys, as allowed under the legislation. The Kyl amendment would require that the president nominate someone within 120 days of a vacancy, and that the Senate vote on the nomination within 120 days.

The second amendment, by Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., would place limits on whom judges could appoint to U.S. attorney posts. After voting on those two amendments, the Senate will vote on final passage of the bill.

The House Judiciary Committee approved companion legislation Thursday by voice vote.

The bill (HR 580), sponsored by Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., would restore a 120-day limit on the terms of interim U.S. attorneys. The committee also adopted an amendment by Linda T. Sánchez, D-Calif., that would apply the 120-day limit to U.S. attorneys now serving without Senate confirmation, making the provision retroactive and applying it to the prosecutors appointed by Gonzales.

Both the amendment and the bill were approved by voice vote, though former House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., and Lamar Smith of Texas, the senior Republican on the panel, voted no.

At the markup, Sensenbrenner said Democrats as well as Republicans knew about the Patriot Act provision before it became law. He said Moschella, who was then the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, met with staff from Sensenbrenner’s office, as well as the offices of Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Leahy in late 2005 to ask that the provision be included in the Patriot Act conference report.

“This wasn’t done in the middle of the night,” Sensenbrenner said. “Staffers from at least two Democratic senators were in the room.”

Kennedy said Sensenbrenner was wrong: “That was put in after the conference, by Republicans. Have him re-read the history.”

Leahy said Democrats were “excluded from most of the conference committee.” The truth will come out at a hearing soon, he vowed: “We’ll let Mr. Moschella come up and tell us, under oath, what he did.”

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Moschella conceived the idea himself, and “did not have knowledge of plans to remove U.S. attorneys.”

Also Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved, by voice vote, a motion authorizing Leahy to subpoena 11 current or former Justice Department officials.

Leahy is now empowered to subpoena six of the eight U.S. attorneys fired last year. All six former prosecutors have already testified before either the House, the Senate or both. The chairman also is empowered to subpoena five current or former Justice Department officials whom Gonzales has agreed to make available. Leahy wants the officials to testify under oath at a public hearing.

Specter exercised his right under committee rules to postpone consideration of a motion authorizing Leahy to subpoena Rove, Miers and Kelley.

Daphne Retter and Martin Kady II contributed to this story.