WASHINGTON — The Senate voted reauthorize a powerful surveillance tool that the US government describes as critical to combating terrorism, after defeating efforts by civil liberties advocates left and right to rein it in.

The 60-34 vote sends the bill to President Joe Biden, who has championed it. The legislation extends Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, for two more years.

The final vote came after the Senate defeated six amendments from progressive and conservative senators who said spy powers are too broad and demanded protections for Americans’ civil liberties and privacy. The Biden administration and FISA supporters had warned that even a brief lapse could have a detrimental impact on the intelligence gathering process.

Senators barely missed the midnight deadline to reauthorize the FISA Section 702 statute, but voted to reauthorize it minutes later. If any amendments had been adopted, the bill would have been returned to the House, which could lead to a long expiration of the law.

“Ultimately, bipartisanship has prevailed here in the Senate,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“It wasn’t easy, people had a lot of different points of view, but we all know one thing: letting FISA expire would have been dangerous. “It is an important part of our national security to stop acts of terrorism, drug trafficking and violent extremism,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Thank you to all of my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle for your good work in getting this done.”

The House approved a two-year renewal of FISA last week after narrowly defeating an amendment requiring a court order to record Americans’ communications as part of data collected during surveillance of foreigners. Senators delayed the vote for days by pushing for changes to the bill.

Passage of the bill came on the heels of a pitched battle between the U.S. intelligence community and an unusual coalition of progressive and conservative civil liberties advocates, who argued that the powers are too broad and impinge on Americans’ privacy. .

“It’s important for people to understand how broad this bill is,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Intelligence Committee and a strong advocate for privacy protections. “Something was inserted at the last minute that would basically force someone like a cable guy to spy for the government. “They would force the person to do it and there would be no appeal.”

In a rare break with Schumer and Biden, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., president pro tempore, opposed the bill, saying, “I am very concerned that this expansion of FISA Section 702 authorities will allow for greater abuse and misuse. of the law, infringing on the rights of Americans here at home.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., rejected that and other criticism of a House amendment added to the FISA reauthorization bill, arguing that it “narrowly focuses on a significant intelligence gap,” But some members like Wyden worry it could be abused.

“Contrary to what some have been saying, it expressly excludes cafes, bars, restaurants, residences, hotels, libraries, recreational facilities and a whole litany of similar establishments,” Warner said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “Nor would it at all allow, as some critics have argued, for the United States government to force, for example, a janitor working in an office building in Northern Virginia to spy for the intelligence community.”

Warner said allowing FISA to expire would have put the United States in “uncharted territory,” as companies that work with the government to provide intelligence could have stopped doing so without a reauthorization.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said that “60% of the president’s daily briefing is made up of 702-derived materials, so this is absolutely critical.”