Washington ? House Republicans pushed on Thursday for approval of the biggest increase in military spending in a generation to help fight the war on terrorism, including money for a new mobile artillery cannon the Pentagon doesn’t want.

Lawmakers moved toward a vote even as Democrats fumed about provisions in the $383 billion measure outlining 2003 defense spending that would exempt the military from major environmental laws.

Across Capitol Hill, the Senate Armed Services Committee completed work on its defense authorization bill behind closed doors. Senate lawmakers agreed to about $1 billion less in missile defense spending than President Bush requested and put off their debate about the politically popular $11 billion Crusader cannon until next week, Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., told reporters.

The White House Budget Office said President Bush’s advisers would recommend a veto if the spending bill told him not to cancel the artillery system.

The House’s Republican leaders beat back a Democratic attempt to force votes on the environmental provisions and on various other proposals concerning U.S. nuclear weapons policy, base closures and missile defense.

While lamenting the lack of wider discussion, Democrats mindful of the war on terror were eager to show support for the overall bill’s increased military spending.

“This legislation will allow us to wage war effectively in the year ahead,” said House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., but “this is symptomatic of a pattern we have seen in the last few months, with a majority that wants to close down debate on issues that are critical to the American people.”

Republicans argued the rules for debate were fair, and the measure answered the nation’s military needs in time of war. House Armed Services Chairman Bob Stump, R-Ariz., said the bill provides the largest real increase in Pentagon spending, in inflation-adjusted dollars, since 1966.