Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate passed legislation to reorganize the nation's intelligence agencies and create a national director of intelligence to oversee efforts to prevent terrorist attacks.

The Senate voted 89-2 today for the bill, which the House approved yesterday. President George W. Bush may sign the legislation as early as next week, his spokesman said.

``As a result of this bill I am confident we will better know our enemy and therefore, have much less cause for fear,'' Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, one of the bill's authors, said on the Senate floor before the vote.

The legislation is based on a report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,973 people in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania. The commission said faulty intelligence-gathering, law enforcement, border and airport security contributed to the failure to stop the attacks.

The bill creates a director of national intelligence to oversee the nation's 15 intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency, and establishes a national counter-terrorism center to evaluate threats. The bill increases the number of border security agents, makes it a crime to give material support to suspected terrorists and requires national standards for drivers' licenses and other identification used to board airplanes.

Director Nominee

Bush will seek additional ways to prevent attacks, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters before the vote.

``We remain a nation at war on terrorism, and intelligence is our first line of defense,'' he said. ``There is always more that we can do to make sure we are taking every possible step to protect the American people.''

Bush would have to nominate someone to fill the new intelligence director post, and the Senate must confirm Bush's choice. Bush hasn't decided on a nominee, McClellan said.

Senator John Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage would be his choice.

CIA Director Porter Goss isn't likely to be nominated, according to Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee. ``He's going to stay at the CIA,'' he said. ``That's my impression.''

House and Senate Opposition

Senator Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, said consideration of the 615-page bill was rushed and lawmakers shouldn't have voted on something ``stampeded'' to the floor.

``We cower like whipped dogs in the face of political pressure,'' he said before the vote. Byrd and Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma voted against the bill.

The House and Senate passed different versions of the bill initially. The Senate version passed 96-2 on Oct. 6. A vote on a compromise between the two was postponed almost three weeks by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, because of objections raised by Republicans including Representative Duncan Hunter of California on military intelligence and James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin on illegal immigration.

The House voted for the compromise measure 336-75 yesterday. Sixty-seven Republicans, including Sensenbrenner, and eight Democrats voted against the House bill.

Sensenbrenner will introduce legislation when Congress returns in January on immigration, including tightening asylum laws and completing a fence on California's border with Mexico.

``We're doing this to stop the next terrorists and to take necessary steps to protect the American people,'' he told reporters.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 8, 2004 17:14 EST