WASHINGTON — More than $68 million for Utah universities and military installations now heads to the president for final signature.

The House completed work on the 2006 Defense Spending bill Thursday after a complicated, legislative turn of events Wednesday almost forced it to reconsider a bill it had already approved.

The final defense bill contains $68 million for the state's military installations, universities and defense companies, according to a press release from Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who is on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The appropriation includes $19.3 million for Hill Air Force Base. Some $5.4 million would go toward the F-16 maintenance depot replacement and $4.2 million each to two different programs designed to improve maintenance on landing gear systems. Hill is responsible for 70 percent of the Air Force's land gear maintenance.

Also in the bill, the Utah National Guard would get $3.5 million to improve its intelligence gathering system.

The state's universities will benefit from $7.1 million in the bill.

Utah State University will receive $3.9 million for its Space Dynamics Lab to develop a control system for using unmanned aerial vehicles and Brigham Young University will get $1.2 million to research a "friction stir" welding technique, which could benefit naval vessels in the future, according to Bennett's office.

The University of Utah will get $1 million to design high-powered electricity sources for troops to use on the battlefield.

The electronic Western Governors University will also get $1 million but it is dedicated to an online program to allow military members to get credit toward bachelor or master's degrees.

For defense industry companies, Ogden-based ATK-Thiokol will get $7.2 million to design and test a Submarine-Launched Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, for which operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown a need, according to Bennett's office.

Also in the bill, $6 million will go to supersonic cruise missile engine development, $3.6 million toward an upgraded sonar system for the Virginia Class submarine and $1 million to Dugway Testing and Infrastructure Upgrade, among other money for other projects.

The House agreed to remove oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge from the defense spending bill Thursday, allowing the bill to go to the president for his signature.

The House had already approved the defense spending bill, which contained a go-ahead for drilling in Alaska, but late Wednesday the Senate voted to remove the provision in what was supposed to be the final version of the bill.

Congress has adjourned the first session. The second session will begin again in January. All pending legislation remains in its current status until the second session begins. Bills only reset at the start of a new Congress. The 110th Congress will start in 2007.

The House will meet again on Jan. 3 but will adjourn again and not meet until Jan. 31.

The Senate will also go into a pro-forma session on Jan. 3, but the real work will begin again on Jan. 18.

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E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com