WASHINGTON (CNN)  -- The House of Representatives approved another $70 billion in war spending on Wednesday, capping a year of frustration for Democrats who took control of Congress on pledges to end the war in Iraq.

The money was part of a $555 billion measure that funds government agencies for the 2008 budget year. It passed on a 272-142 vote, more than a month after Democratic leaders had refused to approve more money for Iraq without requiring President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. combat troops from the nearly five-year-old conflict.

Democrats credit their opposition to the widely unpopular war for the 2006 election victories that brought them to power in both houses of Congress.

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The provision calling for an American pullout stalled in the Senate, which killed two other efforts by Senate Democrats on Tuesday night that would have tied war funding to a plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.