Foiling House Democrats’ ambition to produce an intelligence authorization bill that President Bush would sign, the White House issued a veto threat Wednesday against the measure.

The statement of administration policy targeted various accountability and reporting provisions that the White House said represented overzealous congressional interference in the workings of the intelligence community.

The House was expected to pass the fiscal 2009 measure despite the threat.

The administration criticized portions of the bill that would demand additional information from the administration, create a statutory inspector general for the intelligence community and restrict the Central Intelligence Agency from using contractors to conduct interrogations — even though the administration could waive the latter provision.

The policy statement said the administration opposed provisions “that conflict with the effective conduct of intelligence activities, the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and arrangements that for decades have balanced congressional oversight responsibility with the need to restrict access to intelligence information to safeguard sources and methods used to acquire that information.”

Despite the statement, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said the bill “generally has bipartisan support in this House.”

Although exact funding levels are classified, aides and lawmakers said the bill would authorize more funding for the base intelligence budget than ever before. It also would authorize a small amount of fiscal 2009 supplemental funding.

Actual funding is provided primarily through the annual Defense appropriations bill. The National Intelligence Program, which includes most of the intelligence agencies but excludes the military’s intelligence operations, had a budget of $43.5 billion in fiscal 2007, the last year for which the administration provided declassified figures.