Rockefeller is also crafting a related TV violence bill to be introduced in the summer. The measure would permit the FCC to regulate excessively violent content. Multiple sources said clarifying the FCC's indecency authority could strengthen the constitutional underpinnings of the upcoming broadcasting legislation, which is almost certain to be challenged in court.

But Steven Broderick, the senator's spokesman, insisted that the indecency bill is aimed only at reversing what his boss considers to be an erroneous court decision last month reversing FCC-imposed indecency fines.

Brownback has drafted similar violence language that he might try to add to the same spending bill on the floor this fall, a congressional source said.

Brownback, who is seeking is party’s presidential nomination, offered the indecency language to legislation considered by the Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee. He was rebuffed after a jurisdictional tussle with Inouye.

"I don't really see today's vote as a defeat. It's disappointing, certainly, but this is far from over," said Dan Isett, the director of corporate and government affairs at the Parents Television Council.

Brownback considered the amendment germane because the spending measure includes $313 million in FY08 funding for the FCC.

But Inouye countered in a Wednesday letter to Brownback and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who is also chairman of the Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee, that the proposal falls within Inouye's purview.

Rockefeller's text and the defeated amendment clarify that the FCC can fine TV stations for airing "fleeting" profanity or images that violate the agency's indecency guidelines. The aim is to send a strong message to the courts as they consider broadcaster appeals of fines levied for transitory violations of those rules, sources said.

In June, a federal appeals court overturned FCC penalties on FOX for profanities uttered during live broadcasts. Sources said the language, if enacted, could bolster a possible agency appeal of that decision to the Supreme Court.

Rockefeller and Brownback also want to influence oral arguments, set for September before a Philadelphia federal court, of CBS's appeal of FCC fines levied over the infamous Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" involving singer Janet Jackson.

CBS maintains it had no knowledge that Jackson's breast would be exposed, and the incident lasted less than a second.

"If you vote against this amendment, you're voting for the f-word at 8 o' clock at night," Isett warned prior to Thursday's action. "We simply do not have time to play germaneness issues in the U.S. Senate," he said, underscoring the urgency of passing legislation to affect the judicial reviews.

The language is strongly opposed by broadcasters, the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among others.

"The Brownback amendment would only reaffirm an unconstitutional grant of authority to the FCC to regulate indecency on the broadcast airwaves," the ACLU emphasized in a Wednesday letter to Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd , R-W.Va., and Appropriations ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss. The National Association of Broadcasters declined to comment.