WASHINGTON — Seeking to dispel suggestions that the war in Iraq could lead to reinstatement of the draft, House Republicans on Tuesday hastily brought the idea to a vote — with the express intent of shooting it down.

The vote, launched with only hours of notice and no public hearings, was designed to put an end to talk that President Bush's foreign policy could overtax the all-volunteer Army that has been national policy since the end of the Vietnam War.

"It's putting a rumor to rest," John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), said even before the 402-2 vote to reject the bill that would have mandated two years of military or civilian service for all men and women 18 to 26 years old.

But congressional Democrats and activists elsewhere denounced the vote as an empty exercise that trivialized what many Americans believe is a real possibility.