WASHINGTON — A Senate committee voted yesterday to give airport screeners the collective bargaining and whistleblower protection rights that most other federal employees have.

On a strict party-line vote, Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee agreed, while all the Republicans voted against, giving the screeners the right to join a union and to be protected from retaliation if they report wrongdoing. The measure, which is opposed by the Bush administration, passed on a vote of 9–8.

The committee chairman, Senator Lieberman, an independent of Connecticut, noted that when the Transportation Security Administration was created in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress gave it authority to ignore some civil service laws for national security reasons.

As a result, TSA’s chief has had sole authority to make decisions regarding labor rights for airport security workers. Mr. Lieberman said that since 2001, TSA has declared itself exempt from additional laws “enforcing the most basic employee protections,” in each case devising its own separate rules.

The senator said TSA personnel management has been troubled from the beginning, with “unusually high rates of attrition, vacancy, workplace injury, discrimination complaints, and other indications of employee dissatisfaction.”

The administration and committee Republicans argued that TSA management, and its parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, need the flexibility to respond quickly to any terror alert or attack.