The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to pass a spending bill for the Education Department and the National Institutes of Health in the 2008 fiscal year that is largely the same as the bill that the House Appropriations Committee endorsed last week.

The measure, which passed the House by a vote of 276 to 140, was amended in a few places, none of them affecting programs or policies being watched closely by college leaders and lobbyists. The legislation, which President Bush has vowed to veto as too generous, now faces a conference to be convened after the Senate approves its version of the bill. The Senate measure has yet to pass out of committee. —Kelly Field