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The House voted overwhelmingly, 394-22, Tuesday night to approve the final version of the fiscal 2007 Defense appropriations measure, clearing the way for Senate passage of the $447.6 billion bill Wednesday.

The first of the fiscal 2007 appropriations bills to emerge from a House-Senate conference and reach the House floor, the high-priority Defense bill also serves as a vehicle for a continuing resolution, a stopgap measure that will continue funding for most government agencies at fiscal 2006 levels through Nov. 17.

The legislation also includes a $70 billion supplemental "bridge" fund -- $20 billion above the Bush administration's request -- to pay for costs related to the military's combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during the initial months of the new fiscal year that begins Sunday.

That fund includes $2.4 billion to replenish National Guard and Reserve equipment lost or damaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, and billions of dollars more to rehab or replace Army and Marine Corps vehicles and other gear worn out during the continuing overseas operations.

In addition to the bridge fund, the base bill adds $340 million to maintain an alternate engine on the Air Force's Joint Strike Fighter program, despite Pentagon efforts to cancel the second engine program to cut costs.

The Defense bill also fully funds the Pentagon's missile defense program at $9.3 billion, but shifts money from high-risk programs such as the Kinetic Energy Interceptor to more pressing needs, including the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System.

Meanwhile, appropriators agreed to trim the Army's Joint Cargo Aircraft by $37 million to $72 million, and the service's Light Utility Helicopter by $31 million to $167 million in fiscal 2007.

But shipbuilding programs remained largely unscathed, with lawmakers essentially giving the green light to Bush administration requests for the Virginia Class submarine, the Littoral Combat Ship and the DD(X) destroyer.

House and Senate appropriators signed off on the final conference report last Thursday after resolving a $5 billion gap between their competing measures. Overall, the House bill gave the Defense Department $4 billion less than the administration requested, not including wartime funding. The Senate, meanwhile, trimmed $9 billion from Bush's budget proposal.

Appropriators ultimately settled on the House figure after White House officials repeated veto threats against any bill that cut deeper than the House bill.

"We had a longer list of differences on this bill than we've had on most bills in the past," House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young, R-Fla., said Tuesday. But despite the differences, Young stressed there were no major funding fights between the two chambers.

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