WASHINGTON - If the Sacramento region and the state have any hope of success on their budget priorities in Congress, political differences will have to be cast aside and a new era of cooperation instituted within the state's quarrelsome congressional delegation, business leaders were told Tuesday.

"California is bigger than 21 states and the District of Columbia combined," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

Lawmakers from those states understand "the fact that if they can take money from California, they can spread it among themselves," Feinstein said. "The best offense is a good defense, and that defense has got to be bipartisan."

The message came at the end of the chamber's annual Cap-to-Cap lobbying trip to Washington, for which 389 business leaders fanned out over Capitol Hill and meetings with the Bush administration to press for local issues ranging from road projects and school funding to flood control and regulatory improvements.

But throughout their two-day blitz, members of the group were warned that the soaring federal budget deficit is crippling the opportunities for local projects.

"Everyone has come and given me good ideas," Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, told one chamber group Tuesday. "No one is suggesting the cost and where the money is to come from."

At a dinner Tuesday, Feinstein and former Gov. Pete Wilson, who battled each other in the 1990 gubernatorial race that Wilson won before Feinstein was elected to his Senate seat two years later, the two agreed that cooperation among partisans is the only way that the state is going to be able to improve its odds in Washington.

"It needs to not only be bipartisan but bicameral," said Wilson, adding that the state's greatest strength may be in the power of the state's House delegation. Californian Republicans hold nearly a third of the House committee chairmanships.

Feinstein said that the state is well situated, with Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, to do well on highway funding and flood control work.

But she warned that bipartisan cooperation will be essential as the more difficult and uncertain process begins next month on the final round of military base closings, where protecting Beale and Travis air force bases is a top regional priority.

And Feinstein appealed to the business leaders to press the state to continue funding its share of the state-federal water project known as Cal-Fed because any slippage on meeting its commitment will cost precious federal dollars available only under a matching formula.

"The state needs to find a way to fund this over the long term," Feinstein implored.

The appeal for cooperation came on a day when the chamber group held a luncheon to remember the late Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Sacramento, who died on New Year's Day.

Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, used the occasion to remind the business leaders that cooperation pays dividends in many ways for the region, using as an example the agreement two years ago that he reached with Matsui over flood control.

"Bob and I fought a lot," he said of the years in which the region was divided over its approach to flood control on the American River. Their deal not only solved the flood control fight but is delivering tens of millions of dollars for other water projects in the region. "Cap-to-Cap has gotten boring since all this detente," Doolittle quipped.

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        * The Bee's David Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com.