WASHINGTON -- The House passed aviation security legislation Thursday after rejecting a Senate version that would have turned airport screening operations over to federal employees.

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The bill, which takes steps to make airplanes and airports safer from attack, passed 286-139.

The vote followed minutes after a crucial 218-214 vote to defeat the Senate-passed, Democratic-backed alternative. The Republican-backed bill would allow screening to be contracted out to private employers but would give the Bush administration discretion over whether to make the workers federal employees.

The bill will now go to a conference committee, where members of the House and Senate will try to work out the differences between the two separate bills.

"The American people deserve tough security standards and the House plan delivers," President Bush said in a statement. "I urge the House and Senate to work together to send a strong and effective bill to my desk."

The House action could delay for weeks enacting a wide-ranging package of new security measures aimed at restoring Americans' confidence in flying after terrorists hijacked four airliners Sept. 11 and turned them into weapons of mass destruction.

Lawmakers now face the task of trying to find a compromise with the Senate, which voted 100-0 three weeks ago to pass the measure making screeners federal employees.

My greatest fear is that if it goes to a conference, it never comes out," House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt said earlier Thursday.

House and Senate members must agree on a common bill before it can be sent to the president's desk.

If Congress fails to produce a bill, the president could impose some security measures, such as fortifying cockpit doors and expanding the air marshal program, by executive order.

Bush met GOP lawmakers Thursday morning and made calls throughout the day trying to win over the last undecided members.

"I want every mom and dad who gets on an airplane to feel safe," Bush said. In the end, eight Republicans voted for the Senate bill while six Democrats voted against it.

There was common agreement that Congress must act quickly to get leery Americans back on planes.

"If we do not upgrade aviation security and show the American flying public that our skies are once again safe and secure, then the American aviation industry will continue to flounder and shrink," said Rep. William Lipinski of Illinois, a senior Transportation Committee Democrat.

Aviation security is the third major piece of legislation dealing with the attacks. Congress last month passed a $40 billion relief package for victims and a $15 billion package to help the airlines.

Republicans tinkered with their bill until the last, adding provisions that Democrats said were aimed mainly at capturing a few more votes.

Those included measures to deputize contract workers as federal workers with uniforms and badges, allow airline caterers to share in a $1.5 billion fund to help pay for post-Sept. 11 security costs, and extend liability protections from the terrorist attacks. The bailout bill provided liability limits for the involved airlines; the GOP language would expand that to include plane builders, building owners and other involved parties.

Gephardt said that could include private airport security companies that have been under fire for giving their employees poor pay and training. "We shouldn't be rewarding the mistakes and failures that these companies have committed."

Among other differences, the Democratic bill would have moved overall control of aviation security to the Justice Department. The Republicans would create a new transportation security agency in the Transportation Department.

The Democrats would have imposed a $2.50 per flight fee to pay for increased security. The GOP fee would be $2.50 per trip, so passengers who take connecting flights don't pay twice.