ASHINGTON, April 18 — By a unanimous vote, the Senate passed a bill today to increase the security of the nation's borders, to improve enforcement of immigration laws and to restrict the admission of visitors from countries that support terrorism.
The vote was 97 to 0.
The House has passed two bills with very similar provisions and is expected to accept the changes made by the Senate.
President Bush supports the legislation and has described border security as one of his top priorities.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, the chief sponsor of the Senate bill, said it would help plug gaps in security revealed by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The hijackers entered the United States on tourist, student and business visas, though several had lost their legal status before Sept. 11.
Mr. Kennedy has supported more liberal immigration policies through most of his nearly 40 years in the Senate. On the Senate floor today, he insisted: "Immigration is not the problem; terrorism is. We must identify and isolate potential terrorists, not isolate America."
The bill would increase the number of immigration inspectors and investigators, require universities to keep better track of foreign students and heighten scrutiny on visa applications from foreign countries listed as sponsors of terrorism.
Under the bill, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency would have to share more information with the State Department, which issues visas. The federal government would have to issue machine-readable, tamper-resistant visas and travel documents imprinted with identifiers like fingerprints or retina scans.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that the bill would cost $1.2 billion in the first year and $3.2 billion over three years. The effectiveness of the bill depends almost entirely on whether Congress provides the money, in separate legislation.
Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, said it remained to be seen whether senators who supported the bill today would vote for the necessary appropriations.
Earlier today Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, appealed to Congress to clarify the relationship between law enforcement and public health authorities in responding to bioterrorist attacks.
Mr. Thompson, testifying before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, said his department had cooperated with the F.B.I. in investigating last year's anthrax attacks. But because of the many laws, emergency rules and executive orders defining federal powers, Mr. Thompson said, "there is some confusion" about the roles of the various federal agencies.
Members of Congress have been expressing the same concern for six months. Mr. Thompson was the first top administration official to say that Congress needed to clarify the lines of authority.
Senator Max Cleland, Democrat of Georgia, said there seemed to be "a tug of war between public health agencies and law enforcement agencies" trying to trace the source of anthrax spores that killed five people last fall. In some cases, Mr. Cleland said, the F.B.I. insisted on withholding information that federal health officials wanted to disclose.
"In Trenton, N.J.," Mr. Cleland said, "the F.B.I. and public health agencies could not agree on who should take environmental samples, so they both did. In Washington, District of Columbia health officials first learned there was contamination in several federal agencies from the news media. In New York, law enforcement officials knew but failed to notify city health officials that a suspicious letter had been sent to NBC News until after the first case of infection surfaced. When the F.B.I. took over in Florida, press briefings by public health officials were halted, at the F.B.I.'s behest."
Mr. Thompson said the administration had been "working at breakneck speed to build up the defense of homeland security" and to distribute $1.1 billion in grants to the states.
But local officials said today that they were still waiting for the money.
Thomas L. Milne, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told Congress: "The money has not yet reached local public health agencies, and most do not know how much they will receive from the state, and for what purposes. For that reason, they have not yet been able to hire or train new staff for bioterrorism preparedness."
Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, expressed concern about the delays in a meeting today with Tom Ridge, the domestic security chief. "Sorely needed money for planning and equipment is being delayed by government bureaucracy," Ms. Snowe said.
Mr. Thompson said his department was reviewing state applications for federal grants. William A. Pierce, a spokesman for the department, said officials hoped to distribute the money by May 31.
Mr. Thompson and Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said it was imperative that Congress pass a separate bill to improve food safety.
Different versions of that bill were approved in December, but the legislation has stalled because of resistance from the food industry.