HELENA — It took three votes and hours of bitter debate over 10 days, but the Montana House finally passed a public health and human services budget on Saturday.

Representatives approved House Bill 808 by a 52-48 vote. It faces a final House vote before heading to the Senate.

All 50 Republicans voted for the bill, joined by the lone Constitution Party member, Rep. Rick Jore of Ronan, and one Democrat, Rep. Robin Hamilton of Missoula who said later he mistakenly voted for it. The other 48 Democrats united against it.

A handful of the most fiscally conservative Republicans and Jore, an ultraconservative who opposes any federal spending on human services and education, had twice joined Democrats to defeat HB808 on votes on March 15 and Wednesday.

By Friday, House Republican leaders had crafted a set of amendments specifically aimed at winning over Jore and the Republican dissidents. They cleared the amendments with them beforehand. That’s what led to the bill’s passage.

HB808 sets the budget for the Department of Public Health and Human Services at $2.8 billion in total state and federal funds for the next two years. That effectively freezes the agency’s budget at the current two-year budget period’s level, but does include some inflation adjustments for higher cost of food at institutions, higher cost of medical equipment and higher caseloads.

It is about $300 million less than what Gov. Brian Schweitzer proposed and a bipartisan House-Senate subcommittee recommended. The budget includes none of the new programs recommended by Schweitzer and the subcommittee.

It also doesn’t include increased spending for health-care providers, such as doctors, and direct-care workers, such as nursing home workers, as the subcommittee had recommended.

The amendment also cut in half the amount of federal money for family planning services, cutting the amount to $2.3 million from the current $4.6 million. This was a key move to win the vote of Jore, who said this money is used to fund abortions and morning-after pills to induce abortions.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Stacey Anderson disagreed, saying federal law forbids this family planning money from being spent on abortions.

During the debate, House Majority Leader Michael Lange, R-Billings, said it was time to finally pass the bill and not “make a spectacle of the House.’’

“The people of Montana are tired of hearing about it,’’ he said. “They want it done.’’

Democrats reiterated their legal concerns over House Republicans’ decision to break the traditional single budget bill, which Montana has used for 30 years, into eight bills. They predicted the bills likely will wind up being challenged in court and possibly require the Legislature to return to down for a special session to fix them.

“We may not be done here,’’ said Rep. Dave Gallik, D-Helena, an attorney. “It will be challenged. We’re going to be sure to put the state of Montana into litigation.’’

But Rep. Ken Peterson, R-Billings, another lawyer, said, “You give an attorney an issue, and they can spin it almost anyway they want. It may not be right.’’

House Minority Leader John Parker, D-Great Falls, rose to take issue with a newspaper editorial that he said suggested House Democrats were being obstructionists. He said Democrats have sincere concerns about the legality of the bills, “no matter who tries to brand us as whiners in the process.’’

“It’s not about politics,’ he said. “It’s not about voting lockstep. We should have the guts to do the right thing in the right way.’’

Rep. Penny Morgan, R-Billings, sponsoring the bill in place of hospitalized Rep. Edith Clark, R-Sweetgrass, who defended the bill’s legality. If Democrats believe the bill is constitutional, they should have offered amendments to fix it, she said.

“This current bill has no cuts in it,’’ she said.

Morgan said she had offered a series of unsuccessful amendments to add money to the bill, including one to restore it to the subcommittee recommendation. All Democrats, joined by Jore and a handful of Republicans, voted against it.

Afterward, Lange said he felt some relief in the bill’s passage, but added: “It’s nothing to have a parade over.’’

Parker continued to hammer on the legal issue, calling the bills “flawed.’’

Hamilton, the lone Democrat to vote for the bill, told reporters afterward he was so busy watching how Jore and some Republicans voted that he hit the green button by mistake instead of the red light. He tried to change his vote afterward, but was shot down by House Speaker Scott Sales, R-Bozeman. Hamilton said he would vote against HB808 on the final vote.

Hamilton’s son, Ian, working as a House page for the week, ran over to his father, grabbed him and said, “Dad, you voted wrong.’’

“You always feel terrible when you make a mistake,’’ Hamilton said. “Even though it doesn’t change the outcome, it makes me feel like I had a dunce cap on.’