House passes defense spending bill, dodges ISIS authorization

The House on Thursday easily passed the fiscal 2017 defense spending bill, but along the way defeated two Democratic proposals that would have forced Congress to authorize the war against the Islamic State.

The appropriations bill passed in a 282-138 vote that saw dozens of Democrats lend their support to the measure. It increases the number of troops by more than 50,000 and uses about $18 billion of the war fund for base priorities, the same funding mechanism used by House authorizers, but different from the plan on the Senate side.