WASHINGTON -- The full Senate yesterday squelched an effort to establish an independent Office of Public Integrity to enforce the rules governing relationships between members of Congress and lobbyists.

The Senate threw out the proposal for a public integrity office, 30-67, shortly after resuming work on a lobbying bill. Both Pennsylvania senators opposed the idea.

The lobbying legislation, which was derailed several weeks ago during a squabble between the parties over port security, is intended to address Congress's public image problem in the wake of revelations about the activities of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Mr. Abramoff has admitted to trying to bribe public officials with gifts and favors.

Senators cleared the way for final passage yesterday evening by agreeing to limit further debate and they are likely to vote on a final package as early as today so they can proceed to taking action on controversial immigration legislation.

But a number of outside watchdog groups say the Senate's package falls short of the reforms they originally envisioned. They are even more critical of a version put forward by the House Republican leadership, which could come up for a vote as soon as next week.

"There are still major problems, most importantly there is nothing in [the Senate bill] to change the ethics enforcement system for the Senate," said Fred Wertheimer, who heads a government watchdog group known as Democracy 21.

Some senators, including Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain -- who investigated Mr. Abramoff as head of the Indian Affairs Committee -- and many of the government watchdog groups had argued that the Office of Public Integrity was critical to enforcing rules that are often ignored.

They also believed the office would have made ethics investigations more transparent to the public. The Senate ethics committee's work is done in secret with senators policing each other's activities, and the House ethics panel has been unable to do anything for more than a year.

"We need to restore the confidence of the American ... people in the way we do business," said Mr. McCain, as he advocated for the independent office before the vote yesterday. "Our approval ratings are down around 25 percent, 26 percent, and there are people who continue to be deeply disturbed about the way ... we do business.... Shouldn't we do what we can to help fix either a real or imagined problem?"

But the current head of the Senate ethics panel, George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, and other Republican senators, including Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said the new office was unnecessary.

Mr. Santorum said that when outside groups have filed ethics complaints against him with the Senate ethics panel, "they're looked at seriously, we have to respond to them, and in some cases we've had to hire counsel to deal with them."

But Mr. Santorum said he opposed the independent office because "to hire somebody who is a hired gun from the outside -- whose job it is to sort of 'get' senators -- I just think is corruption of the process."

The Senate also overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan amendment yesterday that will prevent senators from secretly placing "holds" on legislation that prevent bills from coming to the floor without the support of a supermajority of senators.

The Senate's final lobbying package up for consideration today will bar lawmakers or their staff members from accepting meals from lobbyists -- a change proposed by Mr. Santorum -- and will require senators who wish to go on privately financed trips to get approval beforehand from the ethics committee. Senators will also have to file detailed public reports on their activities on those trips, which cannot have a substantial "recreational" component.

Under the Senate bill, lobbyists will have to report their activities quarterly instead of twice a year, and would face new disclosure requirements of their campaign contributions and fundraising activities. There would also be new rules making it easier for senators to prevent their colleagues from slipping special projects known as earmarks into must-pass legislation coming out of House-Senate conferences at the end of the legislative process.

Mr. Santorum was still trying to offer an amendment yesterday evening that would have required members and their staffs to pay a per-person share of the cost of a chartered flight if they fly on jets provided by private companies. Senators now pay the equivalent of a first class ticket when they fly on chartered aircraft. But Senate leaders ruled that Mr. Santorum's proposal was outside the scope of the Senate bill.

The House leaders have put forward a far more limited bill that would make some similar changes -- such as quarterly filing by lobbyists -- and some more restrictive changes, such as a temporary ban on privately funded travel. Some House Republicans are also trying to crack down on outside political groups known as 527s that can raise unlimited funds to influence campaigns.