President Bush will veto any homeland security bill that grants TSA (Transportation Security Agency) aviation security screeners collective-bargaining power, a spokesman for Sen. Jim DeMint’s office tells National Review Online, and 36 senators have signed a letter promising to sustain the veto.

According to the AP, Sen. Susan Collins said, “The president’s message on the bill is going to come out tomorrow. I think that it will contain a veto threat on the TSA collective bargaining position.”

But a spokesman for DeMint says Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff “announced it very clearly” to all GOP senators at today’s GOP Senate Policy lunch: The President will not sign a bill that imposes that kind of inflexibility on the agency tasked with preventing airplane hijackings.

Read the senators’ letter here.