Washington ? Capping years of frustration, the House voted Thursday to overhaul the beleaguered Immigration and Naturalization Service, splitting up its law enforcement and service roles into separate bureaus within the Justice Department.

The bill passed 405-9, reflecting overwhelming support to straighten out an agency that has become legendary for bureaucratic incompetence, most recently when it notified a Florida flight school that two of the Sept. 11 terrorists had been approved for U.S. residency six months after they bombed the World Trade Center.

“It is beyond time to restructure one of the worst-run agencies in the federal government,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the bill’s sponsor. INS, he said, stood for “Ignoring National Security” or “Incompetent and Negligent Service.”

The Senate could begin to consider its own version of INS overhaul as early as next week. While lawmakers still differ over details, the broad goal of reshaping the nation’s immigration service sparks little controversy and may be one of the least disputed goals of Congress this year.

Shortly before the vote, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft visited Capitol Hill, telling lawmakers: “We are committed to ending the INS as we know it.” The White House has offered a qualified endorsement of the House proposal but wants to establish a stronger office inside the Justice Department to oversee the bureaus that would handle enforcement and routine service.

“I am convinced it is time for reform,” House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., said Thursday, reflecting the broad, bipartisan support for the measure.

Declared Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.: “The common goal of ridding our system of an incompetent agency that costs people their lives is a worthy one. … Unfortunately, it took the terrorist acts of Sept. 11 and one bizarre INS foul-up after another to get the ball rolling.”

Long before Sept. 11, INS actions and inactions had given rise to an army of critics. The immigration agency was lambasted for mishandling paperwork, losing track of deportees and meting out justice with different standards in different parts of the country. Lawful immigrants complained of endless backlogs, and many people blamed the INS for the nation’s burgeoning population of illegal residents.

But last year’s terrorist attacks elevated the chronic complaints to a high-level priority. Three of the 19 hijackers remained in the country after falling out of legal status, including one who had been granted a student visa and never reported to school.

Under the House bill, a new associate attorney general for immigration affairs would supervise the new divisions as the third-ranking official within the Justice Department. Despite the high rank, critics questioned whether the two new units would be left without a strong, unifying leader.