Washington ? The Senate gave overwhelming approval early today to a counterterrorism bill costing more than $31.5 billion, ignoring a White House veto threat and setting up a politically tinged showdown over the price tag for domestic security.

After four days of debate, senators approved the legislation by 71-22, despite objections by the Bush administration and many Republicans that it was too expensive. The post-midnight vote followed a testy final flurry in which a few dozen amendments were accepted but scores of others were dropped over the angry protests of several senators.

Passage came hours after President Bush announced his proposal to merge federal anti-terror efforts into a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security and declared that America was waging “a titanic struggle against terror.”

With that backdrop, Senate Republican leaders decided against dragging debate into next week on a package laden with funds for U.S. troops, airport safety and other popular initiatives. Instead, they will count on upcoming House-Senate negotiations on a final version to pare it or produce a bill that Bush would veto just as this year’s campaigns for congressional control are ramping up.

“Clearly the bill has gotten out of control,” said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss, but “to just drag this out into next week would not be a positive thing.”

Bush proposed a $27.1 billion anti-terror package in March, and the House approved a $29 billion bill in May. The spending is for the remaining months of the federal budget year that ends Sept. 30.

Democrats chided GOP critics of the bill, which mostly contains funds for the military, FBI, efforts to thwart cyber- and bioterrorism, and other responses to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Tell your people back home they don’t need this protection,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. “Tell them, don’t tell us.”

Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Tex., and John McCain, R-Ariz., unsuccessfully offered a series of amendments to underline their point that piggybacked onto the bill were pet projects and other items that were not dire emergencies. They also argued that the Appropriations panel included projects that were scheduled for next year to ease a budget crunch expected then.

Even so, the Senate time and again refused to strip items from the legislation, underlining the Appropriations Committee’s power and Congress’ long tradition of attaching parochial items to must-pass bills.

The anti-terror bill contains $5.5 billion to help New York’s recovery from the World Trade Center destruction, $200 million for Israel and $50 million for humanitarian aid to Palestinians and $100 million to fight AIDS in poor nations.