The US House of Representatives approved the biggest intelligence overhaul in more than 50 years on Tuesday, ending a month-long standoff over a bill that will create a new national intelligence chief to oversee the country's spy activities.

The House voted 336-75 to send the legislation to the Senate, which is expected to approve it on Wednesday.

The legislation will create a new national intelligence director to take charge of the country's 15 spy agencies, establish a counterterrorism center, and stipulate measures to tighten the country's border.

"We have come a long way toward taking steps that will ensure that we do not see another September 11th," said House Rules Chairman David Dreier, a Republican from California.

The bill was passed after congressional negotiators reached agreement on control of data from spy satellites and decided to drop a controversial provision over immigration.

Republican House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter and a handful of other Republicans in the House blocked a final vote on the legislation, expressing concerns over possible loss of control over military intelligence agencies by the Pentagon.

Under the bill, the Pentagon, which is now believed to control about 80 percent of the government's estimated 40-billion-dollar intelligence budget, would have to cede some authority to a proposed cabinet-level director of national intelligence.

The lawmakers had come under increasing pressure from the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which proposed the sweeping overhaul, and families of attack victims, topass the legislation designed to enhance intelligence collection and strengthen homeland security.

The 9/11 commission has found that the lack of coordination between intelligence agencies was behind the failure to prevent the terrorist attack more than three years ago.

President George W. Bush, who supported the intelligence overhaul, had pressured his fellow Republicans in Congress to passthe legislation. He said the legislation is important for the security of the United States.

The legislation marked the biggest overhaul of US intelligence since the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency after the World War II.

Besides the creation of the cabinet-level intelligence directorand the counterterrorism center, the bill will also increase the number of full-time border patrol agents by 2,000 per year for five years.

Source: Xinhua