ORRINGTON – Demonstrating the bipartisan approach that led to the U.S. Senate’s passage of campaign finance reform, Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., held press conferences across the state Friday touting their working relationship, which they said would benefit the rural population of both their states.

In press conferences and in an interview at the Bangor Daily News, the Republican and Democratic duo described a new grant that would bring life-saving portable defibrillators to many Maine, Wisconsin and Vermont towns. They also discussed home health care, dental care, and educational grant initiatives they are working on together.

Feingold said he was making his first visit to Maine primarily to praise Collins, who had played a central role in the Senate’s passage of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. He said such praise is unusual for him.

“I don’t make it a practice to go praise Republican senators,” he said during an interview.

In Orrington on Friday afternoon, Collins and Feingold held a press conference while standing in front of an ambulance flanked by dozens of emergency medical technicians from Orrington, Brewer and Bangor.

They announced that Maine, Wisconsin and Vermont had been chosen as the pilot states for federal grant money to purchase defibrillators. The compact devices can monitor and provide an electronic shock to jumpstart a heart that’s stopped. The units cost as much as $3,000 each and the pilot program will devote $100,000 to the three states. Collins and Feingold also are seeking about $12.5 million in funding this year for the nationwide program. Towns will have to apply for the grant money.

Despite a budget crunch, both senators expressed optimism that the money will flow. “Who’s against it?” Feingold asked.

As many as 50,000 of the 250,000 Americans who die from heart attacks each year could be saved if portable defibrillators were more readily available, according to the American Heart Association. The defibrillators, which are so easy to use that almost anyone can operate them, are particularly important in rural areas that aren’t reached as quickly by EMTs.

At the urging of an EMT, Collins demonstrated with a dummy how to use the unit by following the recorded instructions provided by the machine.

“They figure if two United States senators can do it anybody can do it,” she said, gesturing to the EMTs. As Collins followed the steps, the machine told when a shock was necessary to administer with the push of a button.

“These devices are very easy to use and they provide the best chance for your loved ones,” said John Cunningham, chief of the Orrington Volunteer Ambulance Association.

Having more units available is crucial because for every minute a person goes unattended once the heart has stopped, the chance of survival drops 10 percent.

“Cardiac arrest victims are in a race against time,” Feingold said.

Collins said she wants to see more of the units in squad cars, fire engines and town halls. They need to be closer to those who may need quick care, she said.

Both senators said the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which was designed to save money in the nations Medicare system, had unintended consequences that created dire circumstance for home health care.

Maine’s home health care industry, which provides help to older Mainers who aren’t ready for a nursing home, was already lean when the cuts began, she said.

“They cut muscle and bone,” she said.

Across the country, 3,300 home health care agencies have gone out of business as a result of the cuts. While an additional 15-percent cut scheduled for this October has been postponed, Collins said she’d like an additional $13.7 billion restored to prevent the cuts entirely.

Feingold said that based on his dealings with federal Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, when Thompson was governor of Wisconsin, he believes home health care services can be bolstered instead of cut. Thompson, he said, is a believer in home health care because of the success of projects that saved money by keeping people out of nursing homes and emergency rooms.

Collins and Feingold also are working on a bill aimed at the growing dental crisis in rural America. In Aroostook County, for instance, Collins said there is just one dentist per 5,000 people.

The bill might create new dental residency programs and provide incentives to dentists to practice in rural areas.

Another proposal supported by the senators would expand the Pell Grant program by $1.4 billion to $9.6 billion. Under the proposal, an average grant to a low-income college student would go up about $600 a year to about $4,350.

On the campaign finance bill, which has passed the Senate, but still hasn’t come out of the House, Collins said she doesn’t expect a veto from President George W. Bush. She said she’d spoken with him recently and thinks he’ll sign on.

“I’ll predict that the president will sign the bill,” she said.