Having just finished work on the current year’s federal budget, Congress is already setting the framework for what will happen this fall. The Senate Budget Committee is meeting to establish principles for a budget resolution.

Last year’s budget decisions led to serious reductions in federal support for health care, child nutrition and educational programs, while favoring new tax cuts and nondomestic programs. The budget was supposed to create a five-year outline with no further cuts to domestic programs.

Yet the administration and many in Congress are seeking to go beyond the previous five-year budget agreement, and once again domestic programs are on the block.

It is vital, at the outset, to reject this approach and ensure that the interests of children and families are respected, and not spurned.

The challenges represented by the Bush administration’s budget proposal, unveiled last month, are formidable. Because of further proposed tax cuts and nondomestic spending increases, the administration’s plan would actually increase the deficit by $200 billion over five years, while making still more cuts to domestic programs such as Medicaid and Social Service Block Grants. The families that depend on these programs have already been required to make sacrifices, year after year.

Families should not be asked to do with even less as a result of Congress’ budget agreements.

The principles the Senate should use are clear and simple:

. Avoid deep cuts in domestic discretionary programs. In addition to low-income families, all Americans benefit in some way from programs that support education, veterans, law enforcement, transportation and environmental protection, yet all are targeted for significant reductions.

. Avoid cutting low-income entitlement programs. With the cost of health care soaring, poor families cannot be expected to make up for cuts in Medicaid programs, and will have to do without needed health care.

. Avoid adopting tax cuts that are not paid for through other federal revenues. Increasing the deficit, as the administration and Congress have done repeatedly, is not responsible, and puts pressure on the House and Senate to find still more reductions in domestic programs that will harm children and families even further.

These have been difficult years for parents who must rely on federal support to keep their kids healthy, warm and fed.

Maine’s senators have upheld these principles in the past, and Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins now have the difficult but vital task of continuing to uphold them right now by insisting that they be included in any Senate budget resolution and other bills that follow this year.

Their firm stand on these three principles will lead Congress to create a budget that does not increase the harm or increase the deficit.

Elinor Goldberg is the president/CEO of the Maine Children’s Alliance.