Washington ? The House on Wednesday narrowly approved Congress’ first attempt in eight years to slow the growth of benefit programs like Medicaid and student loan subsidies, sending the measure to President Bush.

The bill passed by a vote of 216-214, largely along party lines. Republicans hailed the five-year, $39 billion budget-cutting bill as an important first step to restoring discipline on spending. Democrats attacked the measure as an assault on college students and Medicaid patients and said powerful Washington lobbyists had too much influence on it.

President Bush said he looked forward to signing the bill into law.

“The House today passed a significant spending reduction package that will curb the growth of entitlement spending for the first time in years and help us stay on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009,” Bush said.

The measure is a leftover item from the GOP fall agenda.

It blends modest cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and student loan subsidies with a renewal of the 1996 welfare reform bill and $10 billion in new revenues from auctioning television airwaves to wireless companies. There’s also $1 billion in new spending to extend an income subsidy program for dairy farmers and a reprieve for physicians who had faced a 4 percent cut in Medicare fees.

The $39 billion in cuts are generally small – a 0.4 percent cut in Medicaid funding and 0.3 percent cut in Medicare over five years – compared with deficits expected to total $1.3 trillion or more through 2010. Still, the bill set off a brawl between Democrats and Republicans and whipped up opposition from interest groups like AARP.

The House passed a nearly identical bill on Dec. 19, but the chamber held an unusual revote because Senate Democrats forced technical changes that the House needed to accept before the bill could be sent to Bush’s desk.

Democrats contend the budget cut bill concentrates spending cuts on vulnerable groups like Medicaid beneficiaries while protecting powerful corporate interests such as drug makers and health insurance companies, which won big victories in end-stage negotiations carried on behind closed doors.

“This is a product of special interest lobbying and the stench of special interests hangs over the chamber,” said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

Democrats also said the measure, when combined with an upcoming bill cutting taxes by about $70 billion, would lead to an increase in the deficit.