WASHINGTON – As the chief sponsor of the intelligence reform bill, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, knew passing the sweeping legislation would not be easy. But she never doubted it would happen.

“This was the most difficult bill to bring from conception to birth that I can imagine being involved with,” said Collins, after the Senate passed the legislation by an 89-2 vote Wednesday. “That makes the bill doubly satisfying.”

After months of intense public and private lobbying, Collins thanked the families of the Sept. 11 terror attack victims as well as the bill’s supporters in the House and Senate.

“I think one of the bleakest moments was back on Nov. 20, when the four of us had negotiated a very hard-fought agreement, and then the Speaker, in deference to two chairmen – and I certainly understand his decision – decided not to proceed with the floor vote,” she said. “But that turned out to be just a bump in the road.”

Collins sponsored the bill in the Senate with Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. The two key negotiators in the House were Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif.

Contending that the bipartisan vote in both the House and the Senate means that Congress believes that the reforms will make the country safer, Collins went on to thank her counterparts in both the House and the Senate “for never giving up, for persevering, even when the negotiations were extremely difficult.”

Lieberman also breathed a sigh of relief. “This was the most sustained, in many ways most difficult, I know it was the most important legislative experience I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’m just grateful it ended in success.”

Collins called Lieberman “her partner in this endeavor since the beginning,” and said “I told Joe from now on we always have to be on the same side on every issue because we now know exactly how each other thinks, what all of our tricks are, what our strategy is, so I think you’ll see some future collaboration from the Collins-Lieberman duo.”

The bill now goes to the President’s desk for his signature.