House Democrats plan to send members home for the August recess with fresh votes on legislation that would repudiate President Bush’s execution of the “global war on terror.”

When the House takes up its annual Pentagon spending bill (HR 3222) on Friday, members will consider a measure that would significantly rearrange the president’s defense-spending priorities. On the floor, they could vote on an amendment that would close the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prison and another that would require that U.S. forces be fully trained and equipped before deploying to Iraq.

Less likely but still possible is a vote on a freestanding measure that would require the administration to report to Congress on the status of plans for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

But which amendments would be permitted during debate of the Defense bill was up in the air late Thursday. House leaders were considering rewriting a previously approved open rule allowing unlimited debate to block amendments or limit their number.

Debate on the $459.6 billion Defense appropriations measure, which would be $3.5 billion less than the president’s request, comes on the heels of a House vote Thursday that would require minimum rest periods at home for U.S. military units between deployments to Iraq.

Taken together, the efforts represent additional congressional protests against the administration’s national security policy.

“Our soldiers are serving their third and fourth tours of duty in Iraq, a war without end,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “This is unacceptable, especially at a time when the most recent National Intelligence Estimate shows that al Qaeda is gaining strength and the threat of terrorism against the United States is growing.”

The Pentagon spending bill covers everything from a military pay raise to new combat vehicles, aircraft and ships.

The White House expressed opposition Thursday to many of the changes but issued no veto threats.

The bill would not include the president’s supplemental spending request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That request will be addressed in a separate measure to be considered in September, although the two bills could be combined eventually.

One amendment to the bill expected Friday would close the Guantánamo prison in six months.

The White House would like to close the prison, too, but on its terms and schedule.

In a July 31 CNN interview, Vice President Dick Cheney said the administration will not close the prison until it can find a place to hold terrorists such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged engineer of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

“I think you need to have someplace to hold those individuals who have been captured during the global war on terror,” Cheney said.

Republican Conference Chairman Adam H. Putnam of Florida said any U.S. town with a prison holding a terrorist would become a potential target for attack.

Democrats, Putnam said, “have to be prepared to answer: What do you do with the most notorious terrorist masterminds in captivity, and which American town are they going to be sent to?”

Democrats reply that the closing would be an overdue way to restore the United States’ image overseas.

“Pretty much everyone has agreed it has given America a black eye abroad,” said Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Democrats also are expected to offer an amendment that would require U.S. forces be fully trained and equipped prior to being shipped to Iraq, and likely will not include a presidential waiver.

A similar amendment, which carried the waiver authority, was dropped in May in the face of strong White House opposition from the fiscal 2007 supplemental war spending measure, which later became law (PL 110-28).

John P. Murtha, D-Pa., the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and author of the train-and-equip amendment, said administration officials oppose his measure because “they know they can’t comply with that.

“I would hope they would reduce the number of troops going to Iraq,” he said of the readiness requirements.

On Thursday, the House passed, 229-194, with three members voting “present,” a measure (HR 3159) by Ellen O. Tauscher, D-Calif., that would require minimum rest periods at home for U.S. military units between deployments to Iraq.

It would require active-duty servicemembers 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.

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

Tauscher’s bill would allow the president to waive the strictures if vital U.S. security interests dictate such a step. And individuals could volunteer to deploy more frequently.

But the bill’s prospects 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 on Thursday threatened to veto Tauscher’s bill.

“This legislation would substitute the mandates of Congress for the considered judgment of our military commanders and would impose inappropriate, operationally unsound and arbitrary constraints on how the Department of Defense should prepare units to deploy,” the White House said.

Meanwhile, the Democratic authors of yet another Iraq-related bill were fighting members of their own party to get their measure on the agenda.

The measure (HR 3087) by John Tanner, D-Tenn., would require the administration to give Congress within two months a report on plans for redeploying U.S. forces from Iraq.

But it could be a casualty of criticism from liberals in the party concerned it does not go far enough toward a quick withdrawal.

“We will not support anything without a date certain [for withdrawal] in it,” said Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a leading anti-war member.

In the Senate, meanwhile, John Kerry, D-Mass., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., announced legislation (S 1950) on Thursday that would require classified briefings to Congress on potential withdrawal plans for Iraq.