WASHINGTON -- The House last night passed the first major overhaul of intelligence operations in a half-century, clearing the way for Senate passage today and a major political victory for the White House.

At President Bush's urging, the House by a vote of 336 to 75 approved a massive 600-plus-page bill that will change the way intelligence is collected and disseminated.

Backers said the measure will reorganize intelligence from Cold War-era demands to those of the age of terrorism. It creates a director of national intelligence and counter-terrorism centers, prompting some lawmakers to say that the country will now be far safer and critics to say the new law will be a bureaucratic shell game based on rearranging flow charts.

During seven weeks of spirited debate, with many conservatives arguing that national driver's license standards and new curbs on political asylum were needed, the bill was unanimously endorsed by the bipartisan members of the Sept. 11 Commission, which had made many of the recommendations encompassed in the bill. The commission said the biggest impediment to "connecting the dots" that might have prevented the attacks was the system-wide resistance to information sharing. Commission members said the new, government-wide approach to information sharing embodied in the bill will be a major improvement.

President Bush originally opposed the creation of the commission, which families of the nearly 3,000 victims of the Sept. 11 attacks had demanded. Then he opposed giving a proposed new post of new national intelligence director the budget authority over 15 intelligence agencies and hiring, firing and personnel transfer authority.

Bush dropped his opposition before the November elections and the House and the Senate passed different versions by wide margins. That Senate vote was 96-2 in favor. When the two bodies reconciled their versions, Bush said he supported the compromise measure despite opposition from some conservative Republicans and some family members of Sept. 11 victims who believe the conference measure dropped too many immigration controls.

Many Republicans began worrying that if Bush did not prevail on this issue after his re-election, with Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, his political clout would have been damaged. In the last four days, Vice President Dick Cheney and Republicans on Capitol Hill labored feverishly to prevent the president from being embarrassed if the bill had died.

However, until Monday, it was not certain that House Speaker Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., would permit a vote on the bill. Some members of his party worried that a new intelligence czar might keep spy satellites for civilian use instead of letting them be used for real-time battlefield intelligence that the military says it must have. Language was inserted Monday to prevent the Pentagon from losing its authority over satellites when soldiers might be jeopardized.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key congressional negotiator, said the language was basically to "give a little extra comfort" to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

The new language directs the president to come up with regulations to "respect" the chain of command so that the military does not "abrogate" its control over access to battlefield intelligence.

But another contentious argument did not prevail. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., lost his demands that national driver's license standards be adopted to prevent illegal aliens from getting licenses and that tougher rules on immigration be added, including rules to make it easier to deport illegal aliens. He had argued that the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 had a total of 63 driver's licenses that helped them with their plotting and said the bill that passed last night will not make the country safer.

"This is not reform," Sensenbrenner said. "It sounds like recipe for disaster, the same disaster that occurred on 9/11." He added, "How can we face the families and say while we might have done more, the legislative hurdles were just too high. I will not rest until these [immigration and driver's license] provisions are enacted into law. I will bring them up relentlessly."

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said the Republican leadership has pledged to deal with Sensenbrenner's concerns when the new Congress convenes next month. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House Democratic leader, said some of the changes that conservative Republicans want are "egregious" and expressed disappointment the new Congress will spend time debating them all over again.

Families of the Sept. 11 victims were split last night, with some elated at passage, saying it was a tribute to their loved ones, and others bitterly insisting the legislation is a "fig leaf" that will make people think they are safe when they are not.

Under the bill, a new director of national intelligence will supersede the CIA director, oversee all 15 agencies that deal with intelligence and will directly advise the president. The bill establishes a National Counter-terrorism Center, sets new standards for border security, requires more stringent transportation standards for passenger pre-screening, baggage screening, terrorist watch lists and explosive detection, provides more authority to track terrorist financing and wiretap suspected terrorists, creates an independent privacy board to protect civil liberties, provides better communication for first responders, promotes standards by the private sector for emergency preparedness and sets mandatory minimum sentences for terrorists.

The measure also revives a post-9/11 requirement that U.S. air carriers accept failed rivals' tickets for $25 or less each way.

Congress had enacted the measure two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, giving consumers confidence to buy tickets without fear of losing money as airlines posted widening losses. The law shields credit-card companies from passengers charging back tickets defunct airlines can't honor.

The requirement expired Nov. 19. Legislation adopting some recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission revives the law through Nov. 19, 2005.

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