The bill also includes an amendment that requires detainees at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who have been scheduled for release be set free by the end of the year, despite the threat of a presidential veto.

The National Defense Authorization Act, which the House approved by a vote of 397-27, provides $141.8 billion to support military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for all of fiscal 2008, the first time Congress has authorized funding the two military theaters for a full year since 2001.

"This is a strong bill -- it's one of the finest bills passed in the House in a long while," said Rep. Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat, who as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee was the bill's primary sponsor.

The Senate is scheduled to begin debate of its version of the bill later this month or in early June.

The House rejected an amendment by Democratic Reps. Rush D. Holt of New Jersey and John F. Tierney of Massachusetts to strip $1.1 billion from $8.1 billion in Missile Defense Agency programs.

By defeating the measure, the House preserved funding for the development of a missile-tracking satellite system called the Space Tracking and Surveillance System. It also left money untouched for the development of systems in which aircraft can shoot down missiles from the air, a program to develop warheads to destroy multiple missiles, and a Europe-based missile-defense system.

The proposed cuts were opposed by several Republicans, who said they would've posed a serious threat to national security.

A Republican proposal to add $764 million to the total amount authorized for ballistic missile defense was rejected.