WASHINGTON — Maine’s senators and representatives took opposing positions during Tuesday’s congressional debate over enactment of a constitutional amendment to force the federal government to balance its budget.

Reps. Olympia J. Snowe and Joseph E. Brennan voted for the amendment, which failed by seven votes to achieve the needed two-thirds majority for passage.

Sens. George J. Mitchell and William S. Cohen said that they would vote against the proposal should it come to the floor of the Senate.

During a floor speech, Snowe said, “Experience shows dramatically that Congress won’t make the tough choices on its own … Look, for example, at yesterday’s upward re-estimate of the budget deficit to $169 billion (roughly $100 billion more than previous estimates).”

“Our policy of deficit spending shows no sign of stopping … Frankly, the fiscal condition of this nation grows worse daily,” Brennan said.

They were among the 279 House members who favored the balanced budget amendment, short of the 286 needed to send the amendment to the Senate.

The idea never caught the eye of Cohen and Mitchell.

“Many proposals which are appealing in their simplicity are bad in practice. This is one of them,” Mitchell said in a floor speech on March 25.

Cohen said, “…It is up to Congress to reduce the deficit in a prudent and responsible manner. I believe that a balanced budget amendment would have to be grafted with so many exceptions … as to make its promised relief illusory.”

The defeated amendment would have required that starting with fiscal year 1995, the president would have to submit a balanced budget plan to Congress, and would prohibit spending from exceeding the government’s income.

The amendment would allow spending to exceed receipts only in time of war or if three-fifths of the House and Senate vote for a specific deficit.

Had the House approved the budget amendment, it then would be submitted to the states for ratification, a process requiring approval by 38 states.