Washington — College advocates looking to Congress for even more money, after last month’s passage of the student-aid bill, may be in for a wait.

That, at least, was the assessment given today by a top Capitol Hill budget negotiator, Barbara Chow, the Democratic staff director on the House Budget Committee.

With President Bush threatening to veto the 2008 budget bill for education, Ms. Chow told a forum held by the New America Foundation that she expects Congress to adjourn at the end of the year without a negotiated settlement.

The president has said he will veto the $150-billion budget bill, which also contains funds for the National Institutes of Health, because both the House and Senate versions spend more than he wants on education and other programs. The House version exceeds the president’s request by $11-billion, and the Senate’s is larger by $9-billion.

The federal government’s 2008 fiscal year began on Monday without a budget. Lacking an agreement on a new budget, Congress is likely to approve a long-term “continuing resolution” that would keep spending at 2007 levels.

Ms. Chow, a former budget negotiator in the Clinton administration, said it had taken several years of tough negotiations with a Republican-controlled Congress before both sides understood each other well enough to have successful negotiations. That process is just beginning between Mr. Bush and the Democrat-controlled Congress, she said.

“You kind of had the big blow-up fights beforehand and got those out of the way,” Ms. Chow said, recalling her experience in the 1990s. “This administration really has not needed to negotiate like this before.” —Paul Basken