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WASHINGTON — The Senate has handed the White House a major victory, voting 68-29 to broaden the government's spy powers and to give legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush's program of eavesdropping without warrants.

The bill, approved Tuesday, allows the government to eavesdrop on large bundles of foreign-based communications on its own authority so long as Americans are not the targets. A secret intelligence court, which traditionally has issued individual warrants before wiretapping began, would review the procedures set up by the executive branch only after the fact to determine whether there were abuses involving Americans.

The bill shields phone companies from any legal liability for their roles in the program approved by Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that allowed National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international communications of Americans suspected of having ties to al-Qaida.

The House must still act on the bill.