WASHINGTON — The $3.6 trillion budget request that President Obama sent Congress yesterday contains education, housing and transportation funds for Hawai'i, while also sparing the state's sprawling military presence from targeted defense cuts.

The transportation portion of the budget includes $20 million for a commuter rail project in Honolulu and $4 million to test the viability of intra-island ferryboat routes and technologies.

The budget would also invest $45.2 million in state and local educational initiatives throughout Hawai'i aimed at strengthening student achievement in low-income areas.

It would provide $12.4 million for the state's school breakfast program and $55 million for its school lunch program.

Under Obama's plan, domestic spending would grow about 7 percent while defense would increase 4 percent to $533 billion.

But to offset a small fraction of the increases, Obama highlighted 121 programs that he wants to eliminate or reduce — with more than half the savings coming from defense.

Most of his targeted defense cuts would be to expensive weapons systems such as the F-22 fighter jet and the C-17 cargo plane, which are not produced in Hawai'i.

Moreover, the budget — certainly as it pertains to Hawai'i — promises to look quite different when it's finally passed months from now with significant input from Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i.

Inouye's considerable influence in federal spending largely led to Hawai'i's windfall of several hundred million dollars in the $787 billion economic recovery package passed this year.

Obama's budget proposal includes more than $1.2 trillion that must be appropriated by Congress, including big increases in healthcare, energy and education.

"The president has made his budget clear," said Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai'i. "Congress will now review the budget line-by-line to make sure it conforms with our priorities."

Inouye yesterday deferred comment on Obama's budget request until he's had a chance to digest the 1,374-page document.

For the roughly 57,000 military personnel in Hawai'i, the budget request includes a pay raise of 2.9 percent and an increase in benefits that "keeps pace with or exceeds those of the private sector," according to the budget.

TRICARE STAYS SAME

For Hawai'i's 118,000 veterans, the budget plan would let retirees receiving pensions have access to disability payments, which many are now largely denied.

At a briefing yesterday, Pentagon officials said they would fully fund the military's Tricare healthcare system, meaning no increases in out-of-pocket expenses for 2010.

During each of the past three years of the Bush administration, the Pentagon tried to raise Tricare fees. But Congress rejected the increases and added the money back into the defense budget each time.

Still, Pentagon officials warned yesterday that military healthcare costs — like those in the civilian sector — are rapidly rising and must be contained in future defense budgets.

The Pentagon is projected to spend roughly $47 billion on healthcare in fiscal 2010, making it the fastest-growing part of the defense budget.

"At some point we need to work with the Congress to end the freeze on increases in co-pays and premiums," Pentagon Comptroller Rob-ert Hale said yesterday at a budget briefing.