As a result, both bills would make it easier for law enforcement officials to obtain wiretaps for terrorist suspects who use and discard cellphones.

In 2002, a Dutch judge dismissed the charges against Jérôme Courtailler, who was accused of belonging to an international criminal organization, because the evidence consisted mostly of information from illegally obtained wiretaps.

"The S.E.C. doesn't have the power to grant immunity, or to obtain search warrants or wiretaps, and has to rely on the Justice Department for that assistance," he added.

Most markedly, it appears that the cell, under illegal presidential orders, obtained wiretaps on journalists, politicians and other personalities who may have been an impediment for Mitterrand's personal life.

The other would assist the authorities in obtaining broader wiretaps.

Those limits were meant to prevent criminal investigators from infringing on the Fourth Amendment prohibition against "unreasonable searches" - using the foreign surveillance law to obtain wiretaps when evidence for a regular criminal wiretap was insufficient.

Detective Callus said that after a lot of work the rooftop observations yielded information that helped obtain wiretaps on the phones of union officials and organized-crime figures.

Republican sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said many of the provisions scrapped by the House were being restored, but others - like a Senate-passed measure to make it easier to obtain wiretaps in terrorist cases - were not expected to be included.

Some officials argue that the current system imposes burdens on the F.B.I. and Justice Department as they seek to obtain wiretaps of suspected terrorists.

That was enough to obtain court-authorized wiretaps on Mr. Edwards's telephones, and investigators began to pick up information about schemes to extort millions of dollars from businessmen seeking state riverboat casino licenses.