The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee March 24 approved a six-year, $275 billion highway and mass-transit spending bill.

The legislation was $100 billion under what many members of the panel said was needed for the nation's deteriorating transit systems and highways. The Bush administration, citing red-ink budgets and opposition to tax increases, proposed a transportation bill of $256 billion and threatened to veto anything higher.

In February, the Senate passed a $318 billion bill. According to press reports, the full House plans to take up its version, possibly by next week, and the differences in the bills would have to be worked out by a House-Senate conference committee.

Meanwhile, the committee also inserted into the bill a provision allowing Congress to take another look at the measure again in two years, when a stronger economy might warrant a boost in spending.

Rep. Don Young, R-AK, had proposed paying for the larger bill by raising the federal gas tax, which has stayed at 18.4 cents per gallon over the past decade, by about 5 cents.