In its latest challenge to the president’s war policy, the House passed legislation Thursday to require minimum rest periods at home for U.S. military units between deployments to Iraq.

The vote was 229-194, with three members — Republicans Geoff Davis of Kentucky, Phil English of Pennsylvania, and Tim Murphy of Pennsylvnia — voting present.

The prospects for the bill (HR 3159), sponsored by Ellen O. Tauscher, D-Calif., are not good. A similar measure by Jim Webb, D-Va., was unable to overcome a GOP filibuster in the Senate last month. And the White House Thursday threatened to veto Tauscher’s bill.

But her measure is the first of several the House is likely to consider before the weekend that will add to the political pressure on Republicans to redeploy troops from Iraq and signal to voters that Democrats care about military families.

“This is the Congress’ way of speaking for those people,” said Tauscher.

The bill would require active duty service members to be allowed to spend as much time at home after deployments as they spent in the war zone before they can be deployed again. It would mandate that National Guard and reserve personnel be given three times as much “down time” at home as their previous tour in the war zone before they can be sent back.

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