The House was prepared Saturday to take up a short-term Republican bill designed to fix an intelligence gap, delivering the White House and congressional Republicans a major victory on the top legislative priority before the August recess.

The Senate passed the bill (S 1927) late Friday. The House and Senate also each voted down competing Democratic bills intended as a temporary patch. A House Democratic aide said the House was expected to clear the Senate Republican legislation, with most Republicans and some Democrats expected to vote for it.

The bill is intended to eliminate hitches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA (PL 95-51) that have contributed to the gap and address limitations on surveillance created by a recent court ruling.

President Bush had said he was prepared to keep lawmakers in Washington until they delivered a FISA overhaul he could sign, and the legislation he would receive on his desk was one of several proposals advanced by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell. Both Democrats and Republicans said they wanted to fix the intelligence gap, but differed on how.

The bill would immediately allow the administration to begin conducting warrantless surveillance of foreign targets, regardless of whether the target is communicating with someone in the United States. It would require the attorney general, in consultation with director, to write procedures on how the executive branch collects that information. Those procedures would be subjected later to the FISA court for approval. The bill would expire after six months, giving Congress a window to work out a longer-term FISA overhaul in the fall.

Some Democratic defectors said they voted for the Senate Republicans’ legislation out of discontent with the late appearance of their own party’s measure, deciding to vote for both bills with the hope that one would reach a 60-vote threshold.

“At this point, I still don’t understand it,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said of the Democratic proposal sponsored by Intelligence Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., and Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., which was defeated 43-45. She voted for both that bill and the Republican proposal, sponsored by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Intelligence panel vice chairman Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., which won passage 60-28.

Others said they had concerns about the Republican legislation, but voted for it anyway.

“I’m not thrilled,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. “There are some changes we need to make to make sure that American citizens are protected. But it’s a lot better than a lot of things that have been forced down this Congress’ throat right before recesses that trampled on American’s liberties.”

Still, several Democrats opposed to the Republican bill said it would endanger the civil liberties of Americans too much.

Republicans hailed passage of the bill as a win.

“By passing a FISA modernization bill that the president can sign before we go home for recess, the Senate has taken immediate and decisive action to improve the security of our country,” said Sen. McConnell in a prepared statement.

The White House also praised Senate passage of the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blamed Republicans for defeating the Democratic legislation, glossing over the fact that 16 Democrats and one of the independents who caucus with his party sided with the Republican proposal.

“Rather than pass this bill, my Republican colleagues chose to rubberstamp a flawed administration proposal that fails to provide the accountability needed in light of the administration’s repeated past mismanagement of key tools in the war on terror,” he said in a prepared statement.

But several Democrats involved in drafting their party’s alternative to the Republican proposal were not surprised by passage of the Republican bill.

Earlier, a House bill (HR 3356) failed 218-207, which fell short of the two-thirds threshold required for passage because it came up under suspension of the rules.

In voting against the Democratic bill, House Republicans said the fix would not go far enough and cited opposition from Director McConnell.

Democrats said the bill would have granted McConnell everything he sought late Thursday before the White House and congressional Republicans demanded a broader, permanent change, although they did not specify what broader changes Republicans wanted.

House Republicans accused the Democrats of insincerely pressing their legislation, since they knew it did not have the support of McConnell, who issued a statement opposing the bill. Republicans argued that it would too greatly expand the role of the secret court that approves warrants and slow attempts to conduct surveillance.

“Let’s not cast a vote here only so we can say we did something,” said House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri.

But Democrats said their bill gave the intelligence community all the tools it needs while protecting the civil liberties of U.S. citizens. “Do you want to fix the problem, or do you want it as a political issue?” asked House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas.

Expecting the bill to fail, the House Rules Committee put in place the procedural framework to take up another FISA overhaul bill Saturday or Monday.

Alan K. Ota, Michael Sandler, Patrick Yoest and Bart Jansen contributed to this story.

First posted Aug. 3, 2007 12:21 p.m.