The 90 to 9 vote came after a failed Democratic attempt to strip certain GOP provisions from the bill, including a controversial measure that would protect vaccine manufacturers and other homeland security-related businesses from potential lawsuits.

President Bush, flying to the Czech Republic for a NATO summit, said the measure was "a very important piece of legislation."

"It is landmark in its scope and it ends a session which has seen two years worth of legislative work which has been very productive for the American people," Bush said in a phone conversation with Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

The bill would consolidate about two dozen federal agencies into one cabinet-level department responsible for safeguarding the nation from terrorist attacks, including its borders and transportation systems. The new department would have 170,000 employees and a $38 billion budget, making it the third largest, after the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Bush is expected to nominate Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to head the agency. Ridge currently holds a strictly advisory position in the White House.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who co-sponsored the president's plan with Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., said that the bill marks "a victory for America's law enforcement professionals, our national security, and the safety of the American people."

"We're going to run this department better than we run the rest of the government," he said.

The 484-page homeland security bill sets up an office within the new department to review intelligence reports from different federal agencies in an effort to avoid the communications breakdown that preceded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"The dots are going to be on one board at this department and that's going to help our government see the terrorist threat before they attack," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who authored many provisions that were incorporated into the final legislation.

The homeland bill would also separate the law enforcement and immigration service functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), a split that INS critics have wanted for years. The agency has been sharply criticized for losing track of foreigners in the U.S. and for sending approved student visa applications to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers six months after the attacks.

The homeland security bill would also allow airline pilots to carry guns on airplanes and would grant airports a one-year extension on a Dec. 31 deadline to screen all checked baggage for explosives.

Lawmakers acknowledged that it would take months before the new agency would be up and running, but said the vote was an important first step. In addition, a budget impasse continues to block money for security improvements throughout the government, including federal funds to help first responders across the country such as fire fighters and emergency medical workers.

Earlier Tuesday, lawmakers narrowly defeated a Democratic effort to strip several GOP provisions from the bill after Lott, the Senate Republican leader, promised moderate senators that several changes would be made to them when Congress votes on the first spending bill next year.

Three Republican senators -- Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island -- had raised major concerns about the provisions, which were added by GOP House leaders last week shortly before the House voted on the bill and adjourned for the year.

The disputed items included language to protect vaccine manufacturers from liability, which Democrats said was a payoff to the pharmaceutical industry. The bill would make the protections retroactive, wiping out current lawsuits, including many from families who claim that vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism in their children.

Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., blasted the added provisions.

"Everybody who has their fingerprints on these issues ought to be ashamed of themselves," he said. "Why would we possibly want to give liability protection to a company that is making a pharmaceutical product that may cause autism in children?"

But Gramm defended the new GOP measures, saying that the United States has a tradition of protecting vaccine manufacturers from liability. He also argued that dropping the retroactivity of the law might cause companies to dispose of current stockpiles because they don't fall under the new legal protections.

In an effort to defeat the Democratic amendment, however, Lott assured moderate senators that the language would be changed to eliminate the retroactive protection, Snowe and Collins said.

In addition, Lott promised to change a few other things, including a provision that set up a university research facility which lawmakers said is designed for Texas A & M University, although the school is not mentioned by name. The new language should allow other schools to compete for the earmark, lawmakers said.

Snowe and Collins insisted that Lott receive commitments from House Majority Whip Tom Delay, R-Texas, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., on the future changes to the bill before they voted with Republicans on the amendment. Lott talked to both men from the floor of the Senate, tracking down Hastert in Turkey as the clock winded down for senators to vote.

The amendment was defeated 52 to 47, clearing the way for final passage of the bill.

Miller, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who faces a tight runoff election Dec. 7, voted with Republicans in opposition to the amendment. Independent Sen. Dean Barkley of Minnesota also voted "no"

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sided with Democrats.

President Bush became a critical factor in the vote, lobbying a few undecided senators personally and dispatching Ridge to do the same.

Miller said that Bush made the difference.

"I don't think it would have happened at this particular time if it had not been for the president and if it had not been for the people speaking as loudly as they did on election day," he said.

In addition Miller said he was "pleased that this day has finally arrived."

"It was a long journey, and we still have a long ways to go to make this thing work. In my opinion, it took far too long at a time when we have precious time to be wasting," he said.

The White House had opposed the creation of a Department of Homeland Security until June when President Bush proposed his plan in a televised address eight months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Senate Democrats have opposed the plan largely because of Bush's demand for flexibility to hire, fire and promote the new department's employees, which they said undermined civil service protections.

The rhetoric between the two camps sometimes turned rancorous, with Republicans accusing Democrats of bowing to the political clout -- and campaign contributions -- of labor unions and trying to undercut Bush's power during a time of national crisis. Democrats, in turn, blasted the White House for questioning their desire to protect the American people.

The dispute stalled the bill in the Senate for months and the bill became a factor in several races during the midterm election earlier this month, including the defeat of incumbent Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia.

The Senate-passed bill is slight variation of a proposal by Gramm and Miller that included Bush's demands for employee flexibility while making some minor concessions to Democrats on the labor issues.

Gramm, who is retiring after 24 years in Congress, said he was pleased to have the long-awaited legislation approved before he left Capitol Hill.

"It's something that doesn't always happen to an old warrior on his last hunting party," he said.