The bill does not send money to the Pentagon, but authorizes $696 billion in military spending, including $189 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for the 2008 budget year. It aims to provide more help to troops returning from war and set conditions on contractors and pricey weapons programs.

The bill would authorize a 3.5 percent pay raise for service members. It would also guarantee that combat veterans receive mental health evaluations within 30 days of their request and prohibit fee increases to the military’s health care system.

In one provision likely to be costly, troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are guaranteed three more years of Veterans Affairs health care after being discharged.

The Democratic led Congress also used the bill to try and micro manage the nation’s ballistic missile defense program. Congress authorized about $331 million less than requested for missile defense and restricted the money from being used to deploy missile defense radar in Poland and the Czech Republic until Congress received an independent assessment of the program.

That’s the way the Democratic led Congress punishes Russia for providing sophisticated air defense weapons to Iran and Syria, not to mention providing nuclear fuel for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power facility