WASHINGTON: With thousands of civilian contractors remaining in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. Justice Department officials want Congress to resolve a legal issue that they say obstructs efforts to prosecute any such workers who rape, kill or commit other serious crimes abroad.

Scofflaw Pentagon employees and contractors supporting the American war mission overseas are subject to federal prosecution in the U.S., but a nonmilitary contractor who breaks the law may fall outside the Justice Department’s jurisdiction. Lawmakers plan to renew efforts to extend the reach of U.S. criminal law this session with bills to make civilian contractors and employees liable to federal prosecution for acts including murder, arson and bribery.

The last U.S. troops left Iraq in 2011, and President Barack Obama has said the war in Afghanistan will be over in 2014, though thousands of contractors remain to work jobs ranging from construction to diplomatic security. The State Department alone says it has 10,000 contractors in both countries.

Federal prosecutors believe clearer and more uniform rules are needed to resolve a jurisdictional question made murkier by the end of the Iraq war and the ongoing drawdown of troops from Afghanistan. The jurisdictional gap caused problems for authorities during the first prosecution of Blackwater contractors accused in 2007 shootings in Baghdad and could again be a problem as prosecutors seek a new indictment in the case.

“There still is this great vulnerability if these contractors get into some kind of scrape, some kind of problem, and there’s no clear legal path to deal with it. That can be a serious problem,” said Rep. David Price, a Democrat who plans to reintroduce legislation called the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act.

Previous attempts to close the gap have stalled amid debate over who should be shielded from prosecution and under what circumstances. The Senate bill was tied up in part by uncertainty over how to protect certain contractors and employees, including intelligence agents and law enforcement officials, whose jobs might require them to skirt the law.

“We should not require agents to pay for defense attorneys and risk jail time at the political whim of the Justice Department,” Sen. Charles Grassley, the committee’s top Republican, said at a 2011 hearing.

Prosecutors have had some success using an existing law, the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, to target soldiers and military contractors who commit crimes. Defendants successfully prosecuted under that statute include Steven D. Green, a U.S. soldier convicted in the deaths of an Iraqi family, and Jorge Thornton, a contractor accused of unlawful sexual contact at an Iraq military base.

But Justice officials say that statute, passed by Congress in 2000 in response to a child sex abuse case at an army base in Germany, is too narrow since it doesn’t cover non-Pentagon contractors and those not directly in support of the American war mission overseas. That means contractors with no attachment to the military would be exempt from prosecution.

It’s easier to establish in active war zones that a contractor’s role supports the war effort, but the waning U.S. military presence in those nations will make that case even harder to prove for American prosecutors.

“Cases that would otherwise be straightforward can turn into complex investigations focusing not just on the underlying criminal conduct, but also on the scope of the defendant’s employment, his or her specific work duties, and other jurisdiction-related facts,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer told the committee in 2011.

The issue has come up in several prominent investigations, including after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, when some prison officials avoided prosecution because they were Interior Department contractors.

It also resurfaced after diplomatic security contractors working for Blackwater Worldwide were charged with opening fire in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square and killing 17 Iraqis. The Justice Department brought charges under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, but defense lawyers accused them of stretching the statute since the contractors worked under a State Department contract, reported to State Department officials and provided diplomatic – not military – services.

A judge dismissed the case on grounds that prosecutors mishandled evidence but didn’t rule on the jurisdictional question. The department says it’s seeking a new indictment after an appeals court overturned the dismissal.

The legislation has the support of the contracting industry, which says weeding out rogue members from its ranks creates a culture of accountability, as well as the intelligence community and Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman.