WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted largely along party lines Thursday to tighten supervision of the government's electronic surveillance program despite a White House veto threat.
Sen. Patrick Leahy opposes immunity for companies that helped the National Security Agency.
The measure passed 227-189, well shy of the 287 representatives needed to override a presidential veto.
The bill allows the government to intercept communications between foreign terror suspects, but requires special authorization if the communication involves an American inside the United States.
The bill does not include immunity for telecommunication companies that cooperated in the controversial surveillance program. The White House has said that omission is a deal killer.
Some of the telecommunications companies are being sued by people who say their privacy rights were violated when phone records, e-mail logs and other information were turned over to the government without court approval.
"The House Democrats' bill to reauthorize the Protect America Act fails to give our intelligence community the tools it needs, and it fails to protect companies facing massive lawsuits for allegedly stepping up and answering the nation's call to help after the 9/11 terrorist attacks," the White House said in a statement after the House vote.
The statement, which reiterated the veto threat, also said the bill will "dangerously weaken" national security.
Earlier Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved part of a Democratic proposal on the issue, but left behind the provision to grant immunity to the telecommunications companies. That issue will have to be resolved by the full Senate.
The Senate Democrats' proposal would mean American intelligence agents do not need court permission to monitor foreign-to-foreign communications involving terror suspects.
The White House has been lobbying for a permanent change to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after an intelligence court ruled earlier this year that warrants were needed for those types of communications.
Congress approved temporary changes to the act in August and is now considering bills to make it permanent.
The committee defeated an effort to strip a grant of retroactive immunity for the telecommunication companies that cooperated with the National Security Agency's surveillance program. The program allowed intelligence agents to intercept communications without warrants.
Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, then pushed through a version that earned all 10 committee Democrats' votes. The committee's nine Republicans opposed it.
One of the bill's key provisions states that the FISA law is the only authority on approving warrants for electronic surveillance.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell wrote Leahy on Wednesday to say they would recommend a veto if the bill makes it to the president.
Leahy, who opposed Mukasey's confirmation last week, is against the immunity provision.
The veto threat added to an already testy atmosphere in which the highly partisan Senate Judiciary Committee has struggled to reach a consensus on how to update the 30-year-old FISA law, which the committee agrees has been made obsolete by dramatic changes in technology.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has passed a bill that includes an immunity clause. The bill, which was skippered through committee by Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, has earned bipartisan support and is backed by the administration.
The full Senate still must vote on both bills before either would be sent to the White House. E-mail to a friend 
CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this story.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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