Washington ? The Senate overwhelmingly approved the intelligence restructuring bill Wednesday and sent it to the White House where President Bush is expected to sign it into law next week, setting in motion the first major changes in the U.S. intelligence community since the CIA was established in 1947.

“We are rebuilding a structure that was designed for a different enemy at a different time, a structure that was designed for the Cold War and has not proved agile enough to deal with the threats of the 21st century,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and a prime mover of the measure.

The legislation establishes a new director of national intelligence (DNI) as the president’s chief adviser on intelligence with budgetary and monitoring authority over foreign and domestic intelligence activities. It also creates by law the National Counterterrorism Center, where terrorism information will be channeled and whose director will report to the president on counterterrorism planning and operations.

The measure, approved Tuesday by the House, passed the Senate by a vote of 89 to 2, with Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., casting the negative votes. Byrd, who has opposed the measure since it was introduced last July because of the haste with which it was handled, said Wednesday, “No legislation alone can forestall a terrorist attack on our nation.”

Meanwhile, officials within the 15 agencies that make up the intelligence community have begun studying the implication of the language in the 600-page bill.

While there were weeks of committee hearings from July through September on the intelligence restructuring proposals in the measure, most of the bill has to do with immigration and security measures to meet the terrorist threat within the United States. Complicating matters is the fact that many of the bill’s proposals were not fully explored in either the House or Senate hearings or during floor debates.

For example, the director of national intelligence is charged with establishing “uniform security standards and procedures” in the intelligence portion of the bill. But in a later section of the bill, it says that 90 days after the act is signed, the president is to select a “a single department, agency or element of the executive branch” to direct oversight of personnel security investigations and adjudication, without reference to the DNI.

Praise

In several instances, the bill puts into law new initiatives that have already been begun by agencies, thus making it difficult to revise them should changes be needed.

An FBI Reserve Service is established to provide for temporary employment of former agents during periods of emergency, a program similar to one in effect for the CIA. Since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has brought back retired agents but it was not a formal program established by law. In the bill, the FBI is limited to having just 500 retirees in the reserves and none can be re-employed for more than 180 days.

The measure also provides for increasing personnel in agencies that are fighting the war on terrorism. It also will expand border patrols and add immigration officers, and calls on states to set minimum standards for drivers’ licenses.