The amount could grow if the Navy agrees to a provision from Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, to use $20 million of its funding to help build the new USS Arizona Memorial museum and visitor center.

Other projects include $25 million for a Hawai'i-based federal health program, $23 million for the Maui Space Surveillance System and $7 million for upgrading the electrical distribution system at Hickam Air Force Base.The Hawai'i funds are included in a $459 billion defense spending bill, which the House approved 400-15. The bill would fund defense operations for the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. It does not include the $196 billion President Bush is seeking for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Senate began debate on the bill today and could vote on it as soon as tomorrow.

During the Senate debate, Inouye, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said the measure was a "must-pass bill."

The House bill includes $19.6 million for projects requested by Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, including $5.5 million to begin the cleanup of tons of chemical munitions dumped off O'ahu at the end of World War II.

The money would be used for sonar mapping, water quality testing and analysis to determine the munitions that are there and the condition of their containers, Abercrombie said.

"Sixty years of saltwater corrosion may have caused a hazard," said Abercrombie, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.

The program will map the sea floor at the dump sites with high-resolution sonar and conduct observation with manned and unmanned submersibles.

Samples of the water, sediment and plant and animal life will be analyzed for toxic compounds and a risk assessment developed.

Another $800,000 would be used to continue research at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology into the hearing of marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins, and the effects of underwater sound such as sonar on the animals behavior.

The bill also has a $2.4 million earmark from Inouye and Abercrombie for BAE Systems' continued development in Hawai'i of a marine mammal detection system for Navy aircraft, which would survey naval training areas before active sonar is used to avoid harming them. The system uses migration patterns with real-time sensors to automatically detect the location and movement of the animals.

Another $5.2 million would be used for research on developing a global network of sensors that can track objects in space using small, inexpensive optics. Oceanit Aerospace Group, the Maui-based subsidiary of Oceanit Laboratories Inc. of Honolulu, is developing the technology.

Hawai'i projects in the bill include: