"The bill says America is determined and resolute to not only defend our freedom but to defend freedom around the world, that we're determined and resolute to answer the call to history and that we will defeat terror," Bush told a Rose Garden audience of mostly uniformed military personnel, along with a handful of lawmakers.

The spending measures were the first of their kind to become law – three weeks after the start of the 2003 budget year.

Lawmakers who were deadlocked over spending decisions and anxious about midterm elections left Capitol Hill last week to campaign. They plan to finish the other 11 required spending bills in a lame-duck session after the Nov. 5 voting.

The $355.4 billion defense bill, approved with overwhelming support to provide most of what Bush requested, increases spending by more than $34 billion over the previous fiscal year. Bush sought $367 billion, but ran into bipartisan resistance to his proposal for a $10 billion fund he could tap without congressional input for combating terrorists overseas.

"It's the largest increase in defense spending since President Reagan was the president," Bush said Tuesday as he stumped for candidates in Bangor, Maine.

"Any time the United States of America sends our youngsters into harm's way they deserve the best pay, the best training and the best possible equipment. ... It doesn't matter how long it takes to defend freedom, we'll do it. ... We have a duty to future generations of Americans to make this land secure."

With a day of work in Washington sandwiched between campaign swings and other travel, Bush was urging the Senate later Wednesday to follow the House's lead and approve legislation to bypass a Supreme Court decision that struck down a ban of computer simulations of child pornography. Bush was hosting a private forum on the sexual solicitation and exploitation of children over the Internet, followed by the public address.

The events are a follow-up to the Oct. 2 White House Conference on Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children. Bush focused most of his attention and remarks at the time on kidnapped children but noted that during a single year one in five children between the ages of 10 and 17 are sexually propositioned online.

On Wednesday, he was also encouraging parents to teach their children about online safety.

"The threats to our children are found not just on our streets, but they're found in the technology which we use in our homes," Bush told the conference. "With expanding use of the Internet and the heightened activity of predators searching for underage victims, more children are being lured into harmful and even tragic situations."

In April, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional and too broad part of a 1996 law intended primarily to stop pornography produced through computer wizardry that was not available when the court placed child pornography outside First Amendment protection in 1982.

Free-speech advocates and pornographers challenged the ban on material that appears to be a child in a sexually explicit situation or that is advertised to convey the impression that someone under age 18 is involved.

The bill Bush was promoting would prohibit the production, distribution and possession of any visual depiction, real or electronic, of prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

With the military moving toward a war footing with Iraq, the defense measure increases spending in almost every area, from weapons procurement to payroll. It includes a 4.1 percent pay raise for military personnel and almost all the $7.4 billion Bush requested to keep developing a national missile defense system.

The defense bill also provides $3.3 billion for 15 C-17 transport aircraft, $2.3 billion for two Aegis destroyers, $3.2 billion for 46 Navy F/A-18 E/F fighters and $3.5 billion to continue developing the Joint Strike Fighter. Another $249 million is allotted for Navy Tomahawk cruise missiles, a prime weapon in the Persian Gulf War.

Nonmilitary federal programs are operating on last year's budgets, under a fourth temporary funding bill that is good through Nov. 22.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush signed into law Wednesday the biggest military spending increase since Ronald Reagan's administration - a $355.5 billion package giving the wartime Pentagon "every resource, every weapon and every tool they need."

Overwhelmingly approved by Congress, the measure contains a 4.1 percent salary increase for military personnel, $7.4 billion to keep developing a ballistic missile defense system and $72 billion for new weapons.

With the president contemplating war against Iraq, and U.S. troops involved in an anti-terror campaign across the globe, the law increases Pentagon spending in almost every area for the budget year that began Oct. 1 by a total of more than $34 billion, or 11 percent, over the previous year. It was the biggest increase in 20 years.

"Since September 11, Americans have been reminded that the safety of many depends on the courage and skill of a few," Bush told a Rose Garden audience filled with uniformed military personnel and lawmakers from both parties. "The bill today says America is determined and resolute to not only defend our freedom but to defend freedom around the world, that we're determined and resolute to answer the call to history and that we will defeat terror."

He also signed a $10.5 billion bill financing the building and upgrading of military installations in fiscal 2003.

While Congress gave Bush most of what he requested, lawmakers rejected his plea for a $10 billion fund he could tap without congressional input for combating terrorists overseas.

There was a tinge of politics in the bill signing less than two weeks before elections that will decide which party controls Congress.

Bush took a veiled dig at the Democratic-controlled Senate for the failure to approve his request for a new Homeland Security Department. The president noted that all the armed forces were collected under a single federal roof when President Truman began revamping national security agencies after World War II.

"He reorganized our nation's defense structure to meet the security threats of a new era," Bush said. "Today, we are once again in a new era. ... We can't wait any longer. The threats to America are simply too great."

David Sirota, spokesman for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, responded that "the defense bill represents a bipartisan effort to prosecute the war on terror. It's only too bad the president has not displayed the same resolve in addressing the economy that he is running into the ground."

Bush ticked off the many tasks being placed at the military's feet: "bring justice to agents of terror ... liberate a captive people on the other side of the Earth ... prepare for conflict in Iraq if necessary ... serve in many places far from home and at great risk."

"We owe them every resource, every weapon and every tool they need to fulfill their missions," he said.

Bush also brought up a controversial item for which funding was deleted. Lawmakers reluctantly succumbed to his desire to scuttle the Army's Crusader artillery program.

"To have the willingness to say, `This program works and this one doesn't,' is important," Bush said.

The defense bill is H.R. 5010; the military construction bill is H.R. 5011.