May 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 397-27, authorized $644 billion for defense spending in fiscal 2008.

The measure includes $483 billion for regular Defense Department programs plus $20 billion for the nuclear weapons programs at the Energy Department as well as military-related programs within the Justice and Homeland Security Departments.

It also includes $141 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, marking the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that this war funding is covered within the regular defense budget.

This money is separate from the $124 billion in supplemental funding for this fiscal year now before Congress. That bill is stalled over President George W. Bush's objections to language proposing a withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The authorization measure passed today has no mention of withdrawal or of another proposal -- setting benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq.

The $483 billion for regular defense spending represents ``8 percent growth over this year's defense budget,'' said Stephen Daggett, a defense budget analyst for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

``It continues the growth in defense spending under way since fiscal year 1998,'' he said.

Exclusive of war costs for Iraq and Afghanistan, defense spending since fiscal 1998 has increased cumulatively 42 percent above inflation, Daggett said.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to begin work on its version of the defense authorization measure next week.

Readiness

The House legislation authorizes spending $115 billion for military personnel, $142.5 billion for operations and maintenance, $102 billion for weapons procurement and $73.3 billion for research and development.

The measure attempts to address the readiness needs of a military which has been stretched thin by the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

``The centerpiece, the polestar of this entire effort in our bill is that of readiness,'' Ike Skelton of Missouri, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters after the vote. ``Readiness means not just being ready today, but being ready in the future.

Among other things, the bill provides $4 billion to buy tougher vehicles to protect soldiers from the leading cause of U.S. deaths in Iraq: homemade bombs, which accounted for 58 percent of the 2,764 U.S. combat deaths in Iraq as of May 5, according to Pentagon data.

New Armored Trucks

The Army wants to spend $19.4 billion through 2009 to buy Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, a new class of armored truck.

The legislation addresses ``the problem that is killing the majority of young Americans in Iraq,'' said Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat. ``We are addressing that with ten times more money than the president asked for.''

To accommodate such funding, the House cut 23 percent from the Army's major weapons modernization programs. Among the cuts was $867 million from the $3.7 billion the administration requested for the Future Combat Systems program of armored vehicles and drones, under contract to Boeing Co. and Science Applications International Corp.

The White House flagged its opposition yesterday to this cut and to other elements in the House measure yesterday.

A ``Statement of Administration Policy'' from the Office of Management and Budget said this cut to the Army's top weapons program would force the service ``to retain its Cold War hardware'' and prevent ``soldiers from fielding the best available equipment in the future.''

Other Spending Decisions

In other weapons programs, the House:

-- approved slowing down the administration's planned missile defense site in Poland and the Czech Republic, cutting $160 million of a $310 million request for the European site. The remaining $150 million was approved as a down-payment on Orbital Sciences Corp. missiles and radar that likely would be made by Raytheon Co.

-- rejected for the second time in two years a Defense Department request to terminate a backup engine made by General Electric Co. and Rolls-Royce Group Plc for the Lockheed Martin Corp. Joint Strike Fighter program.

-- added $480 million to continue the program to build the back-up engine.

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at Jgoldman6@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 17, 2007 17:08 EDT