Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe visited Washington, D.C., on Monday with his fellow attorneys general, to meet with President Bush and Attorney General Michael Mukasey at the White House.

Rowe said in a voicemail message that he asked Mukasey to pressure Congress to restore federal law enforcement grants that Congress reduced by 66 percent in the massive budget it passed late last year.

Rowe and his fellow AG's sent a letter to lawmakers on Monday urging them to restore the money.

President Bush then came into the room in the Old Executive Office Building, the large gray fortress that used to the War Department, next door to the White House, where he delivered some remarks on stalled legislation to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Bush favors a Senate passed bill that gives retroactive immunity to the telephone companies that participated in the government's warrantless eavesdropping program started after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"It was not very comfortable," Rowe said. "A few of us felt like he used us as props."

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