WASHINGTON, March 25-- The U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget for fiscal year 2016 in a 228-199 vote on Wednesday with sharp spending cuts.

The 2016 budget, put forward by the House Republicans, will slash federal spending by 5.5 trillion U.S. dollars over 10 years, while increase defense spending in fiscal year 2016 to 96 billion dollars, well above the White House's proposal.

Republicans are split over defense spending. Fiscal conservative Republicans want to keep the statutory spending caps, known as sequestration, while defense hawks want to boost military spending.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on its own GOP budget plan later this week. The two chambers will need to work out any differences.

Both the House and Senate GOP budgets maintain the sequestration which the White House has been seeking to remove.

On Wednesday, the White House's press secretary said in a statement that the House Republicans' priority is to return the economy to the same top-down economics that has failed the American people.

The secretary stressed that President Obama will not accept a budget that locks in sequestration or one that increases funding for the national security without providing increases in funding for the economic security.