The House passed a Pentagon spending bill early Sunday but postponed debates about the Iraq War and the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until September.

The measure (HR 3222), which passed, 395-13, would provide $459.6 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2008, which begins Oct. 1, 2007.

Overall, the bill would provide $3.5 billion less than President Bush requested in his fiscal 2008 budget blueprint and $39.7 billion, or 9.5 percent, more than was enacted in fiscal 2007 (PL 109-289).

It would not include funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will be considered separately when Congress returns from recess in September.

The House-passed Defense appropriations bill now forms part of the baseline for the coming debate. The measure would pay for everything from military pay raises to new combat vehicles, aircraft and ships.

The measure would deviate sharply from Bush’s blueprint for Pentagon spending in some areas. The White House has expressed opposition to many of the changes — including a 3.5 percent pay increase for the troops, a half-percent more than requested — but issued no veto threats.

The bill would add funds to Bush’s proposals for certain areas, such as National Guard equipment and shipbuilding, but subtract from others, such as the Army’s next generation of equipment and missile defense accounts.

“What we address in this bill really changes the direction of the Defense Department,” said John P. Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

Lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have given Bush the time he sought this year to execute his troop buildup in Iraq. But many of them say they believe time is up in September, although it remains unclear whether Congress will force any changes even then to the U.S. engagement in Iraq.

The pivotal date this fall is Sept. 15, when the administration must give Congress a new progress report on conditions in Iraq. The report will be delivered to Congress just as the Defense appropriations debate resumes, this time in the Senate, when that chamber’s Defense Appropriations Subcommittee takes up its version of the bill.

In addition to the regular Pentagon funding measures, the Defense spending panels in September will begin writing a separate bill that would pay for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal 2008.

But Murtha has said the House could pass a bill that funds less than six months of military operations. Murtha also has said the regular Pentagon bill and the war measure could be merged.

The war supplemental bill could include several prickly amendments that House Democrats decided not to try to add to the Defense bill during floor debate Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

One of those proposals, still being drafted, would mandate a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Another would allow the detention of “unlawful enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay for only six more months. A third would require minimal readiness standards for U.S. troops deploying to Iraq.

The House considered 18 amendments to the Defense bill. Most were defeated or withdrawn. Among those not passed were several by Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona and John Campbell of California that would have cut mostly Democratic-sponsored earmarks, including one requested by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.