WASHINGTON - North Dakota's all-Democratic congressional delegation sharply criticized President Bush's federal budget Monday, saying the president's fiscal priorities are misguided.

Rep. Earl Pomeroy called the spending proposal "another rehash of bad policy ideas." Sen. Byron Dorgan said he was "disappointed." Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said Bush's plan is "filled with debt and deception, disconnected from reality, and continues to move America in the wrong direction."

Bush's $2.9 trillion budget rewards the Pentagon with a record $50 billion budget hike but pinches programs cherished by Democrats, including health research and heating subsidies for the poor.

All three members of the North Dakota delegation said the budget slashes domestic and rural priorities while spending too much on defense and tax cuts for the wealthy.

Budget items of interest to North Dakota:

Increases:

3 Proposes the largest-ever funding increase for the National Park Service in preparation for the park system's 100th birthday in 2016. Bush allots $2.4 billion for the National Park Service for 2008, $230 million more than he requested last year. It would include money for 3,000 new seasonal employees and increase money for park maintenance - two areas that advocates say have suffered for years. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, Theodore Roosevelt National Park would receive almost $2.7 million in the 2008 budget year, an almost 18 percent increase.

3 Suggests $16 million more for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to strengthen law enforcement and counter growing methamphetamine production and use in Indian communities. Also would provide an additional $15 million to improve Indian student achievement.

Cuts:

3 Would give Amtrak an $800 million subsidy, $500 million less than the federal government spent on the passenger railroad in 2006. Congress is likely to freeze Amtrak spending for 2007 at 2006 levels.

3 For the fifth year in a row, the budget includes no funding for United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck.

3 Money available under the popular federal COPS program, which puts more police officers on streets, would drop dramatically - from $558 million to $32 million.

3 Rural health outreach and flexibility grants would be eliminated. Both grant programs are designed to encourage greater access to health care in rural areas.

3 The total allocation for the Bureau of Indian Affairs would be equal to last year's request, at $2.2 billion, about 1 percent lower than was enacted in the 2006 budget year. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.V., said the president's budget "debilitates the basic needs of sovereign Indian nations and stunts the creation of opportunities in Indian Country by failing to allocate sufficient funding for adequate health care, safe drinking water, functioning sewer systems, secure roads, and other infrastructure repairs."

3 The administration asks that Congress repeal a provision passed 2005 as part of a broad energy bill that prohibits new fees for oil and gas permits on federal land. The administration estimates such fees could generate $20 million a year.

In control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years, Democrats from many states accused Bush of trimming domestic programs, using smoke and mirrors to predict a balanced budget in five years and ignoring a hidden tax threat to middle-class families.

His $245 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan has given lawmakers sticker shock.

Despite common agreement that something must be done soon about the spiraling cost of benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare, Bush recommended mostly modest steps - while refusing to consider tax hikes that could draw Democrats into negotiations.