The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday that would require the executive branch to report to Congress on contacts between the Justice Department and the White House.

The panel voted, 14-2, to approve the measure (S 1845) by Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., after adopting a Whitehouse substitute amendment by voice vote. Four Republicans joined all 10 Democrats in voting for the bill. Two GOP senators — Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Jon Kyl of Arizona — opposed it, and three Republicans did not vote.

Whitehouse, a former U.S. attorney, wrote the legislation after former Justice Department colleagues alerted him to the Bush administration’s wide expansion of the number of White House and Justice Department officials allowed to communicate about civil and criminal matters.

“The greatest hazard to the independence of the Department of Justice is the White House,” the senator said.

Whitehouse made several changes with his substitute amendment to attract Republican support. As amended, the bill would require the attorney general and the White House counsel to submit semiannual reports to the Senate and House Judiciary committees on communications between the White House and the Justice Department involving criminal or civil matters during the prior six months.

The legislation would exclude communications between the attorney general, the deputy attorney general and the associate attorney general from the Justice Department and the president, vice president, White House counsel or counselor to the president.

Kyl cautioned against a rush to legislate based on the practices of the Bush administration, on a matter that lawmakers might be able to govern through oversight. The Arizona senator alluded to “some concerns” of the Justice Department and said the measure could result in investigative targets being tipped off.

Whitehouse pointed out that his bill does not require the subject of the communication to be disclosed to lawmakers.