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Originally introduced in 2017, the bill passed the House unanimously in 2020 only to stall in the Senate. It faced headwinds earlier this year after progressive Democrats in Congress, led by Representative Cori Bush of Missouri, said they would oppose the bill, citing concerns from groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations that it would increase surveillance of people of color, especially activists.

The A.C.L.U. opposed an earlier version of the legislation, stating in a 2019 letter that it would “entrench longstanding problems, and result in the further unjustified and discriminatory surveillance, investigation, and prosecution of people of color and other marginalized communities, including those engaged in First Amendment protected activities.”

But the measure has picked up momentum since Saturday, when an 18-year-old white gunman opened fire at the Tops supermarket in East Buffalo, authorities said, in a premeditated effort to kill Black people, driven by the belief that white Americans were at risk of being replaced by people of color.

Democrats negotiated internally to amend the bill to assuage the concerns of progressives, narrowing the definition of domestic terrorism and adding a provision to guarantee that individuals could not be put under surveillance for the mere act of taking part in a protest.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas testified before Congress last year that the greatest domestic threat facing the United States came from what they called “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.”

In a separate warning last year, the Department of Homeland Security said publicly for the first time that the United States faced a growing threat from “violent domestic extremists” emboldened by the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Senate sponsors of legislation framed the bill last year as a way to respond to the assault on Congress.