The House passed its own version (HR 5658) in May. But the Senate passed its version Sept. 17, more than four months after the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote it. The Senate’s delays, caused by partisan bickering — mostly over non-defense issues such as domestic oil drilling — left little time for House and Senate negotiators to write the final version.

When they did, the House passed the compromise measure by a vote of 392-39 on Sept. 23. Now the Senate can send the bill to the president before lawmakers go home for the election campaign.

Senate Republicans, concerned about their inability to get a vote on an amendment related to earmarks, objected last week to a formal conference on the bill. Without a House-Senate conference committee, the final version of the measure was written mainly by the senior members of the two Armed Services committees.

Also because there was no conference, the final measure can be filibustered.

“I am more optimistic that won’t occur,” said John W. Warner of Virginia, the most senior Republican on Armed Services, who has managed the bill for the GOP.

Jim DeMint , R-S.C., who had blocked the measure to protest the bill’s earmarks, said he would not filibuster the final measure when it comes to the floor, as some have feared he would.

Unlike a formal conference report, the final measure also can be amended. DeMint said he would try to get a vote on an amendment he has written in an effort to draw attention to more than $5 billion worth of earmarks the Senate Armed Services Committee approved. DeMint’s amendment would strike a provision stating that the report should be considered a part of the bill, which will become law. He wants to ensure that the bill’s earmarks do not have the force of law in the administration’s eyes. Carl Levin , D-Mich., committee chairman, has said the real effect of DeMint’s amendment would be to neuter the entire measure, noting the report is the only place where Congress’ detailed funding authorizations are found.

DeMint recognized that Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., is likely to use procedural maneuvers to block his amendment or any others.

“We’ll just try it again,” DeMint said. “They won’t give it to us, but we’re going to make a point about this huge, wasteful spending.”

Making Iraq Pay

In addition to the bill’s high-profile elements, it also contains provisions governing weapons procurement; controlling waste, fraud and abuse in Pentagon spending, and stipulating the size of the armed forces.

Signaling Congress’ reluctance to maintain further high spending for Iraq, the bill would bar the use of Pentagon funds for large-scale infrastructure projects in Iraq, with certain exceptions. And it would call on the federal government to begin negotiating a cost-sharing agreement for joint U.S.-Iraqi military operations and act to ensure that Iraq pays for the costs of its own security forces.

The bill would authorize spending on several advanced weapons systems, though the actual funds would be provided in separate defense appropriations legislation (HR 2638) that the Senate was poised to clear over the weekend.

For example, the defense policy bill would authorize $2.9 billion for 20 F-22s, plus $523 million in advanced procurement for additional planes. But the measure would limit the amount that could be spent on parts for future planes to $140 million, pending a decision by the next president to continue producing the jets. Bush deferred that decision to his successor.