WASHINGTON – The release of President Bush’s fiscal year 2002 federal budget proposal Monday morning is a mixed bag for the state of Maine, said lawmakers.

While the president’s budget proposal includes full funding for the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve and money for U.S. Navy fleet construction at Bath Iron Works, it also decreases financial assistance for low-income families to pay for their heating and cooling bills.

But the blueprint merely serves as a way for the president to show where the administration’s priorities lie. Congress has control over how funds are appropriated and must finalize those numbers by October. The House and Senate have recently passed budget resolutions, which set a framework for how much federal money will be spent.

President Bush is proposing a cut to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program from $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $1.4 billion. LIHEAP is a federally-funded program that helps eligible low-income households pay for home heating and or cooling needs. The initiative was started in 1974 as a pilot project in Maine.

In Bush’s plan, however, full funding would go to the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, which ensures supplies of heating oil in the event that colder than normal winters occur in the Northeast.

His budget proposal also contains money for additional border patrol agents, including $75 million annually to fund 570 new agents each year in 2002 and 2003.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund also is seeing full funding at $900 million. Maine officials have submitted a proposal to the Department of Interior for a habitat conservation plan that would fund the purchase of buffer zone properties that could protect salmon streams.

Maine’s Head Start program would be increased to more than $24.8 million and housing assistance and services for low-income Maine residents would rise to $145 million, under Bush’s plan.

Within hours after its release, members of Maine’s congressional delegation, who are on a two-week recess, weighed in on the 1,245-page document.

Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe said she supported the president’s efforts to pay down the national debt and make investments in education, health care and tax cuts, but she expressed opposition to a request to eliminate military facilities.

“None of the four base closure cycles has delivered the anticipated savings to taxpayers,” Snowe said in a statement. “The country has already lost more than 25 percent of its military basing infrastructure in the last decade.”

Democratic Rep. John Baldacci said the state is getting shortchanged in funding for agriculture and energy research. He also criticized the proposal for lacking full funding for special education.

“While it increases investment in education, it doesn’t go far enough,” Baldacci said.

Fellow Democratic Rep. Tom Allen had criticized Bush’s budget priorities when the president released a preliminary blueprint in February and compiled a list of initiatives that could hurt Maine. He says the president’s $1.6 trillion in proposed tax cuts are causing other vital programs to be cut.

“The Bush administration is married to their tax cuts,” he said. “Large tax cuts are the first, second and third priorities.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she was pleased with funding for upgrades to facilities at Acadia National Park. The Bar Harbor-based park, along with St. Croix Island International Historic Site, could get $6 million for repairs and preservation under the Bush plan.

Collins also supported funding for design of a border station in Jackman and $15 million for a second round of empowerment zones and enterprise communities. These funds would provide Lewiston with a $250,000 grant in fiscal year 2002.

She expressed concern, however, for proposed cuts to LIHEAP and the COPS program, which provides federal grants to police departments.

“I will work to increase funding for special education, a prescription drug benefit for seniors, health care for veterans, medical research, LIHEAP, the COPS program and other priority programs,” Collins said in a statement.