Maine lawmakers want President Obama to devote more money to a low-income heating assistance program in his 2013 budget proposal, which is due out next month.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Oylmpia Snowe joined 38 other senators in writing a letter to Obama last week urging him to seek at least $4.7 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

LIHEAP got $4.7 billion in 2011, but Obama’s budget for this fiscal year sought just $2.57 billion. Congress upped the ante to $3.5 billion, but that still means a major cut for this winter heating season.

Maine got $56.5 million in LIHEAP funding last winter, but less than $40 million this season. That’s after a final installment of $10 million for Maine, released last week by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Snowe said the average Mainer in the program will get $483 this season. Last winter, 63,802 Mainers received benefits averaging $802 over the heating season, according to the Maine State Housing Authority, which administers the program.

Maine Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, and Mike Michaud, D-2nd District, also back more spending.

ACROSS THE AISLE ON ‘DATE NIGHT’

It will be a bipartisan night for Maine lawmakers when President Obama delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday to a joint session of Congress.

Traditionally, Democrats and Republicans sit separately at the State of the Union. The bipartisan seating movement was sparked last year by a desire for more civility on Capitol Hill after the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting in Arizona that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and killed six people.

Olympia Snowe will sit with Sen. Mark Begich, D-Ark.

They are the top Republican and the chairman, respectively, of the Senate Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard.

Susan Collins will pair up with independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Lieberman chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Collins is the committee’s top Republican.

Michaud will go bipartisan as well, but will make a “game time” decision as he enters the House chamber about whom to join, his office said.

Pingree sat with members of her bipartisan congressional softball team last year, and said last week that she might again seek out those teammates as seatmates.

Some have irreverently dubbed it “date night” on Capitol Hill.

MICHAUD TOUTS LIMESTONE REPAIR FACILITY

Michaud has a budget suggestion for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that the Maine Democrat hopes will boost work for the Maine Military Authority.

About 200 workers at the facility in Limestone repair Humvees and other vehicles, mainly for the National Guard.

Sending more types of vehicles, and from other branches of the military, to the facility can only aid the Obama administration’s quest to trim defense spending, said Michaud in a letter to Panetta last week.

“As you continue to look for ways to cut the DOD budget, I urge you to consider the savings potential of MMA’s high-quality, cost-efficient refurbishing capacity,” Michaud wrote.

PINGREE SEEKS STUDENT DEBT INVESTIGATION

Pingree wants the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to examine whether private student loan companies saddle unqualified candidates with debt.

Pingree wrote a letter last week to the bureau, which has been looking into whether more safeguards are needed for people who take out private student loans.

Pingree says the answer is yes.

“Unqualified candidates are often approved for loans even when they have very little chance of ever being able to repay their debts,” Pingree said.

The bureau, created by the 2010 financial overhaul law, became the focus of attention recently when Republican senators blocked the nomination of Richard Cordray to be the agency’s director. Obama used a recess appointment to put Cordray in office anyway.

MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind can be contacted at 791-6280 or at:

jriskind@mainetoday.com

Twitter: Twitter.com/MaineTodayDC