CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The House approved the GOP version of the FISA bill Saturday night by a vote of 227-183, with most Republicans and conservative Democrats supporting the measure.

The White-House backed legislation closes what the Bush administration has called critical gaps in U.S. intelligence capability.

Lawmakers have been scrambling to pass a bill acceptable to the White House before they leave for a month-long summer recess. President Bush had threatened to veto any bill that Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said did not meet his needs.

The Senate approved the Republican-sponsored bill Friday night. Immediately after that vote, a Democratic-sponsored bill failed to reach the 60-vote majority.

Saturday night's vote followed fireworks in the House, where an angry group of Republicans accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of delaying a vote on the bill, the president's legislative priority.

"Last night, the Senate passed this bill at about 9:30. Now it's almost 1 o'clock. We should have had the FISA (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act) bill on the floor the first thing this morning," Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan told reporters in the early afternoon.

"We could have passed a rule and passed this bill by 11 o'clock this morning, and it could have been on its way, and the president could have signed it," said Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

House Democrats rearranged the schedule so the FISA bill could be considered ahead of a measure dealing with Defense Department funding.

The House on Friday night rejected a Democratic version of the bill.

The rush to pass a bill altering the 1978 Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act was sparked earlier this year by a secret FISA court ruling that the current law requires a warrant for eavesdropping on foreign-to-foreign communications because so many overseas calls and e-mails are sent through U.S. switching centers, U.S. officials said.

FISA allows officials to apply to a secret FISA court for a warrant to monitor communications involving U.S. citizens. Prior to this year's court ruling, officials believed they didn't need a warrant for foreign-to-foreign communications.

Democrats had objected to provisions in the GOP bill that grant the attorney general and the director of national intelligence the authority to approve all wiretaps, even if one party is in the United States, with minimal court oversight.

The administration initially proposed to give the authority only to the attorney general but agreed to add the director of national intelligence after Democrats objected to putting more power in the hands of embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. McConnell had signaled his disapproval of both Democratic-sponsored measures.

Despite the push from the Democratic leadership for their bill, several Democrats said during debate that they would vote in favor of both measures.

All the bills are temporary fixes - the Democratic bill would have expired in four months, while the GOP bill gives lawmakers six months to overhaul the 30-year-old law.