SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A06

LENGTH: 430 words

HEADLINE: WASHINGTON IN BRIEF

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A Senate Democrat is asking for government inquiries into whether Robert W. Ray, who resigned last week as independent counsel, began pursuing a political career while still investigating President Bill Clinton.

Ray said on Friday that he will seek the Republican nomination to challenge New Jersey Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, a Democrat. Ray made get-acquainted calls to leading New Jersey Republicans while serving as independent counsel but he insisted that he did not engage in "prohibited partisan activity." Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) was not convinced. He is urging Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and the General Accounting Office to investigate whether Ray broke any laws, regulations or ethics rules.



House and Senate negotiators have agreed to spend $ 17.1 billion on conservation as part of a 10-year farm bill. That's more than the current level but $ 4.2 billion less than the amount specified by the Senate version of the legislation. Environmentalists criticized the compromise, accusing Senate negotiators of caving in to pressure from farm state lawmakers who wanted more money for crop subsidies.



The Pentagon said it has agreed in principle to carry out new environmental impact studies on controversial missile defense tests planned for an area stretching from California and Alaska to Hawaii. But it said it remains on target for having a functioning "test bed" in Alaska as early as Sept. 30, 2004.



Two Missouri voters and an election reform group filed a lawsuit yesterday saying that the Federal Election Commission failed to investigate allegations that campaign committees associated with Attorney General John D. Ashcroft violated finance reporting laws in 2000.

The original complaint alleged that Spirit of America, a political action committee organized in 1996 for Ashcroft's short-lived presidential campaign, contributed its list of 100,000 donors to Ashcroft 2000, his Senate campaign committee. The complaint said neither of the committees reported the list's transfer. It also said that the list's value exceeded contribution limits.

The lawsuit -- filed in the U.S. District Court here by the Alliance for Democracy and voters Hedy Epstein and Ben Kjelshus -- says that the commission received the plaintiffs' complaint on March 8, 2001, and did not assign it to a lawyer until July. More than a year later, the commission "still has not taken final action," it alleges.

-- Compiled from reports by staff writers Walter Pincus and John Lancaster, the Associated Press and Reuters



LOAD-DATE: March 20, 2002