WASHINGTON – Legislation to help startup companies raise capital by reducing some federal regulations won easy passage Thursday in the Senate despite warnings from some Democrats that less government oversight would mean more abuse and scams.

President Obama supports the measure, which stands to be one of the few bipartisan bills to pass Congress during this politically contentious election year.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., a leading sponsor of the legislation, said it “might be the most pro-growth measure that this body will consider, perhaps this whole year.”

Democrats did manage to pass one amendment to increase investor protections, so the legislation will still require another House vote. The House passed the measure two weeks ago on a 390-23 vote. The Senate vote was 73-26, with all the “no” votes coming from Democrats.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he would schedule a House vote next week.

The legislation combines six smaller bills that change Securities and Exchange Commission rules so small businesses can attract investors and go public with less red tape and cost. It eases rules on advertising and permits startups to use the Internet and other social media to solicit a large number of small-scale investors.

The measure sailed through the House with almost no opposition but met resistance in the Senate after SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and numerous consumer and investor groups expressed concerns that it dismantles some of the protections put in place after the Enron scandal and the excesses of the dot-com era. Senate Democrats demanded that investor protections be added to the bill.

On Tuesday, the future of the bill seemed in doubt when Senate Republicans rejected Democratic attempts to add protections to the bill and link it to reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, an agency that helps U.S. companies finance their sales abroad. The Democratic leadership decided to move ahead after deciding on two amendments that addressed some, but not all, of the investor protection concerns.

That wasn’t enough for some Democrats. The Senate’s no. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said the bill would “allow companies to use billboards and cold calls to lure unsophisticated investors with the promise of making a quick buck investing in new companies.”

“We are about to embark upon the most sweeping deregulatory effort and assault on investor protection in decades,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

The centerpiece of the bill is a measure to reduce costs for companies seeking to go public by phasing in over five years SEC regulations that apply to “emerging growth companies.” That status would be in effect for companies with annual gross revenue of less than $1 billion.

The measure would remove SEC regulations preventing small businesses from using advertisements to solicit investors, raise from 500 to 2,000 the number of shareholders a company or community bank can have before it must register with the SEC, and allow smaller companies to sell up to $50 million in shares, compared with $5 million now, without filing some SEC paperwork.

It also encourages the practice of “crowdfunding,” in which the Internet is used to raise capital from a large number of smaller investors.