In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed what may become the federal government's first significant gun-control law in more than a decade.

The bill, pushed by U.S. Rep Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and others, is intended to get states to report more information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. It would set aside $250 million a year for three years to help states automate and report information, but also threatens to cut federal crime-prevention grants by up to 3 percent to states that do not comply.

Like-minded legislation cleared the House in 2004 and was never taken up by the Senate. But this time around, the National Rifle Association has thrown cautious support behind the bill, which passed by voice vote after a short debate featuring one dissenter, Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul of Texas.

If the proposed law had been in effect, the Tech shootings would not have happened, Boucher said by phone shortly after the vote.

"And it will prevent similar kinds of incidents across the country," he said.

Under federal law, Seung-Hui Cho already should have been excluded from buying the handguns he used in the worst school shooting in U.S. history April 16.

But information on Cho's mental health that would have rendered him ineligible to buy guns was not entered into the federal database for background checks before gun purchases. Cho was ruled by a special justice to be a threat to himself and ordered to seek outpatient treatment, but at the time in Virginia, only patients who were committed to mental hospitals in such circumstances were entered into the federal database. Virginia is one of only 23 states that report any information to the database about people disqualified from buying guns for mental health reasons, according to a report issued Wednesday by a panel President Bush ordered to investigate the Tech shootings.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who last month issued an executive order to expand the type of mental health treatment that would prompt a patient to be reported to the database, issued a statement praising Congress for passing the bill.

"Today the House of Representatives took significant action to honor the memories of the victims who lost their lives at Virginia Tech," Kaine said in the statement.

The NRA supported the bill after meeting with sponsors including Boucher and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, both of whom are considered strong supporters of gun rights.

The NRA pushed for language spelling out how people could be removed from the database. The bill also offers a guarantee that funds used to improve the database will not be used for other gun-control measures. In addition, veterans who were diagnosed with mental problems while getting disability benefits would automatically have their right to buy arms restored.

The effect on veterans was a concern for U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, who issued a statement expressing qualms about the bill even though he is for entering people committed for outpatient mental health treatment into the gun-purchase database.

"While I supported some aspects of the bill, I was not a supporter of the overall measure," Goode said in his statement. Goode's press secretary, Linwood Duncan, said he was not sure if the congressman was present on the floor for the voice vote.

U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, voted for the bill and issued a statement saying, "This legislation helps ensure that criminals and those with serious mental defects, who are already disqualified from purchasing weapons, do not slip though the cracks and obtain weapons in violation of current law."

In a statement on the NRA's Web site, the organization's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, said the proposed law is not gun control, though it is being characterized that way in the media.

"It wouldn't disqualify anyone currently able to legally purchase a firearm," LaPierre said in the statement. "In fact, it would provide an opportunity for people who've been disqualified to clear their name. Right now folks don't have that opportunity."

LaPierre also warned that, "If this bill turns into a piece of gun control legislation, the NRA will withdraw its support. We won't stand idly by while the bill is amended by the anti-gunners in the House or Senate."

If it moves though the Senate and is signed by President Bush, the bill would be the most significant new federal oversight of gun purchases since the assault weapons ban of 1994, the last year Democrats controlled the House before this year. In 1996, Congress added people convicted of domestic violence crimes to the list of those banned from buying guns.

The bill was introduced by Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat who ran for office with a gun-control agenda after her husband was killed in a 1993 mass shooting on a Long Island Railroad commuter train.

"This is a good policy that will save lives," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.