The White House said March 30 that the president would veto the House highway spending bill, rejecting efforts by House GOP leaders to negotiate between the administration's demand for fiscal discipline and lawmaker pleas for more road-building money.

The White House statement came on the eve of House debate on a six-year $275 billion highway and transit bill that House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, helped to craft and which many Republicans, as well as Democrats, see as a major job creator.

The administration also said it would veto a $318 billion version of the bill that the Senate approved last month. The administration wants spending at $256 billion.

A White House statement said: "Accordingly, if this legislation were presented to the president in its current form, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill."

Bush has yet to veto a bill in his three years in office.

However, the White House also raised the veto threat against a provision in the House bill that would bar states from receiving most of their highway funds after Sept. 30, 2005, in effect reopening the bill for renegotiation if Congress failed to enact a law that guarantees equity in highway spending.