Compromise on Patriot Act clears way for a Senate vote

''I think [the changes in the bill] were enough to make sure we can protect the American people," Hastert told reporters in Cambridge, Md., speaking of three revisions that the white House and Senate GOP holdouts announced Thursday.

The House ''should move forward with it as soon as the Senate" acts, he said. A short-term extension of the measure expires March 10.

Passage of the bill was stalled late last year when four Senate Republicans joined Democrats in saying that it shortchanged civil liberties protections in the name of the war on terrorism.

Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley, said the Nevada Democrat intends to vote for the bill. The Senate's second-ranking Democrat, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, is also among its supporters.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, also said the bill had been substantially improved by the changes and she would vote for it.

Any changes made would still have to be approved by the House, but Senator Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, another negotiator, said that with the Senate and the White House in concert, he thought the House would go along. He said he had consulted with House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin. ''There will be no additional negotiations," Craig said.

Sensenbrenner declined to comment, but Hastert said he had discussed the bill with the chairman.

The changes, worked out over several weeks of talks, specifically with the office of White House counsel Harriet Miers, covered three main areas:

Under the first change, recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in terrorist investigations would have the right to challenge a requirement that they refrain from telling anyone.

The second removes a requirement that an individual provide the FBI with the name of an attorney consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a demand for records issued by administrators.

The third clarifies that most libraries are not subject to National Security Letter demands for information about suspected terrorists.