By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to boost the security of airlines and airports and, as an important byproduct, restore the nation's confidence in flying.

With the 100-0 vote for aviation security legislation, the Senate then moved to an anti-terrorism bill to give law enforcement new powers to pursue terrorists. "I hope that Congress can and should act quickly," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said both bills, coming a month after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, would help in "ensuring that this kind of thing can never happen again."

The security bill also was seen as essential to ending the current slump in air travel. "People are going to feel better about flying," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., head of the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee. "It will put people back in planes."

The Senate also approved by 100-0 a resolution designating Sept. 11 as a national day of remembrance.

The bill, following recommendations made by President Bush, authorizes the presence of more air marshals on flights, directs that steps be taken to fortify cockpit doors, increases anti-hijacking training for flight crews and imposes a $2.50 passenger fee per flight leg to pay for the changes.

It requires that every checked and carryon bag be X-rayed.

All 28,000 airport screeners and other security personnel would be put on the federal payroll, although smaller airports would have the option of hiring local and state law enforcement officers subject to the same training and standards as screeners at larger airports.

"There's no Swiss cheese approach here," said Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. "Every hole is covered."

The bill faces an uncertain future in the House, where some Republican leaders object to creating a new federal bureaucracy for screeners. Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, the House's third-ranked Republican, said he would block consideration until he gets the votes for legislation that would increase federal supervision over screeners but keep them as private employees.

The Bush administration supports that approach but has indicated willingness to go accept the full federalization included in the Senate bill.

The two chambers appeared closer on the anti-terrorism bill. The Senate began debating its version Thursday, with senators saying they expected to finish debate and vote during the night.

The House will take up its version of the bill Friday. The Bush administration is pressuring the GOP-controlled House to replace its bill with the Senate version.

Unlike the House anti-terrorism bill, the Senate version has no expiration date on the new police powers and also includes money-laundering legislation requested by the White House.

However, House and White House negotiators appeared close to a deal Thursday that would extend the new wiretapping laws for five years, instead the two years currently specified in the House bill said a spokesman for House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

Both the House and Senate legislation would expand the FBI's wiretapping authority, impose stronger penalties on those who harbor or finance terrorists and increase punishment for terrorists.

A two-week stalemate on the aviation bill was broken Thursday when a procedural vote went against an amendment to link the bill to a $1.9 billion package to help laid-off aviation workers.

Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., author of the amendment, withdrew it after the vote, opening the way for passage of the bill.

Carnahan argued that after Congress approved $40 billion in emergency spending and a $15 billion plan to help the airline industry in the aftermath of Sept. 11, it was only right to provide extended unemployment benefits, health care and training to the estimated 140,000 laid-off aviation workers.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., expressed his "grave disappointment" with the vote against Carnahan. "This is the first time that we have said 'no' to any of the victims of the disaster of one month ago."

But others said accepting the Carnahan amendment would open the bill to other peripheral amendments, including a $3 billion package to upgrade Amtrak security and capacity. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said that if the worker relief measure went forward, he would try to attach language to open 2,000 acres of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.

The Senate approved an amendment offered by Sen. John Breaux, D-La., to study the use by flight crews of nonlethal weapons to disable would-be hijackers. Senators also passed by voice an amendment by Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., that authorizes the Federal Aviation Administration to permit pilots to carry guns. Under the measure, airlines and pilots would make the decision whether to put weapons in the cockpit.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., won acceptance of an amendment to make the Justice Department, rather than the Transportation Department, responsible for overseeing airline security operations.

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The aviation security bill is S. 1447. The anti-terrorism bills are S. 1510 and H.R. 2975.

On the Net: Bill texts: http://thomas.loc.gov

Senators' Web sites: http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm