WASHINGTON - Defying a White House veto threat, the House of Representatives on Friday overwhelmingly passed a massive highway and transit bill that is chock full of special projects for lawmakers' home districts and expected to create thousands of construction jobs.

The $275 billion legislation includes $21 million for the Grand Strand in the High Priority Projects Section. Of the legislation, $80 million is allocated for the Interstate 73 and 74 corridor, Sharon Axson of U.S. Rep. Henry Brown's office said.

There is $13 million from the legislation that would be used for road projects in southeastern North Carolina. Among those projects would be a four-lane road in Robeson County between Maxton and Interstate 95 that would make U.S. 74 four lanes from Wilmington to Charlotte.

The 357-65 vote shows that the bill's backers have the votes to override a veto. The Senate also passed its version by a veto-proof margin, 76-21, on Feb. 12.

"I would hope the president would understand the needs for roads in this country," Brown said. "I don't think there's going to be a veto."

The House measure will cost at least $275 billion over six years and probably more because of last-minute additions. Lawmakers included over $11 billion in special projects "earmarked" for their own districts as well as special tax cuts worth $12 billion over ten years.

The White House budget office threatened Tuesday to urge President Bush to veto the measure because he had set a $256 billion ceiling on what he would accept. It would be Bush's first veto, but he is under pressure, especially from fiscal conservatives, to show Congress he's ready to take a stand against profligate spending. Given the margin of passage in Congress, a Bush veto would hardly get in the way of lawmakers' fondness for federal transportation aid, which goes mainly for highways.

"If you look at the members themselves and how badly they want their projects, I know I have the votes" to override a veto, said Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Young said he designed the bill as much to help lawmakers politically at home as to help grease the bill's passage.

"All the parochial payola in this bill gives it Teflon coating," said Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a fiscal watchdog group in Washington.

Ashdown said that members of Young's committee and lawmakers facing tough re-election fights appear to benefit most from the measure, which includes more than 3,200 "earmarked" projects for lawmakers' districts.

Without much notice or debate, lawmakers also added tax cuts for small business costing $12 billion over 10 years. The provisions would also cut the number corporations subject to the alternative minimum tax, which was created in 1969 to make sure that profitable companies do not avoid paying taxes.

The bill would exempt companies with gross receipts of $20 million or less from the AMT.

Here's how the $275 billion legislation is divided

$70 million | Allocated for Interstate 73 and 74 corridor in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio

$10 million | For I-73 in South Carolina

$5 million | For Carolina Bays Parkway extension

$5 million | For the U.S. 701 connector

$1 million | For the Myrtle Beach International Center