WASHINGTON - North Dakota's congressional delegation wants President Bush to get a closer look at drought-stricken areas of the Midwest.

Sens. Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Friday the delegation will send the president a letter asking him to tour the driest parts of the state. South central North Dakota and north central South Dakota have been called the "epicenter" of the drought that has hit the nation this year.

Dorgan said the drought has been devastating for crops and pastures and he wants President Bush to understand the need for disaster aid.

More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

But lawmakers from those states have had a difficult time getting any dollars for relief as Congress struggles to pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dorgan used his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee to add $4 billion for farmers to spending legislation designed to pay for the wars and the hurricane earlier this year. But the White House and House conservatives said it was too expensive, and it was stripped from the final bill.

Dorgan has added the same provision to a separate spending bill that is pending in the Senate. But lawmakers won't get to that bill until September at the soonest, since Congress is on break until after Labor Day.

Conrad has also pushed the drought legislation. He said he believes support is building in Congress as record-high temperatures across the country grab people's attention.

He has said the disaster relief will have the best chance of making it through Congress if it is voted on before the November election.

"What is happening in our states is also happening in theirs," Conrad said of his colleagues in the Senate. "Sometimes people don't see the light until they feel the heat."

He added that the drought's effects are spreading.

"This isn't something that just effects our farmers and ranchers, it has a devastating impact on the main streets of North Dakota," he said.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told WDAY radio Friday that the government will do "everything we can to help" but it is important to "make sure we have a pretty good idea of what the harvest looks like."

"I think that's what Congress was doing in terms of putting it off till fall," Johanns said.

Conrad said Johanns has given Bush "bad advice."