By Malia Rulon
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Ohio defense programs and some cleanup projects in the state benefited in President Bush's 2005 budget, while funding for steel companies, Appalachian programs and grants for "empowerment zones" in urban areas gained nothing.

The $2.4 trillion, 1,268-page budget document is only a proposal and still must be approved by Congress, which typically increases funding for its pet projects.

For defense, funding for the Army's newest tank, the M1A2 SEP, would increase 62 percent to $292 million. That would help the Lima Army Tank Plant near Toledo.

Funds to install gun shields and other protective gear on Army Humvees would fall 30 percent in the president's budget to $303.7 million. Still, the funding is good news for Ohio because half of that would go to O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt of Fairfield to armor 818 new vehicles.

Another big defense winner would be the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. Funding for the Air Force Materiel Command would increase $9.6 billion to $120.5 billion.

Wright-Patterson manages more than half of the Air Force Materiel Command's budget.

Bush's proposal also includes more money for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. The $289 million includes funds to keep the plant on cold standby so it could be restarted, start construction on a plant to convert nuclear waste into a stable form and clean old buildings that once housed centrifuge technology.

Four other weapons-related sites in Ohio would receive enough funding to be completely cleaned by 2006 - Fernald, the Mound plant in Miamisburg, Ashtabula site and the Battelle Laboratories in Columbus - would receive a combined $459.5 million, which is down about 1.7 percent from this year's budget.

Bush's budget proposes a $35 million cut to a program Congress created to help strapped steel companies get private loans by providing guarantees of 85 to 95 percent.

The program, which the president had tried to eliminate last year, was left with $18 million for next year, enough to cover one such loan.

The budget also would eliminate the "empowerment zones" program, which seeks to revitalize impoverished areas through grants as well as business tax breaks and credits.

The federal Appalachian Regional Commission, which helps attract new businesses and create jobs in some of Ohio's most economically strapped counties, would get the same level of funding, $66 million.