Majority of Americans support funding for low-income heating

By Max Heuer

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2002--A vast majority of Americans support an increase in funds for a program designed to keep low-income families and seniors warm through the coming winter months, a recent survey says.

Several Northeastern lawmakers gathered Tuesday to tout the new survey as a potential bargaining chip for additional funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a federal program that helps low-income Americans pay their energy bills.

The annual survey, conducted by the Behavior Research Center, a polling firm, found that 78 percent of Americans believe it is more difficult now than five years ago for low-income families to pay energy bills, up from 67 percent three years ago; 78 percent said LIHEAP funding should be increased, and 31 percent of them said the increase should be "substantial."

"The messages we are hearing could not be any more clear," said Rep. Jack Quinn (R-NY), head of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition. "Americans believe in lending a hand when help is needed most."

New Hampshire's House delegation weighed in on the issue Tuesday as well.

"LIHEAP is one of the most important safety nets the government offers to
low income families" second district Rep. Charlie Bass said in a statement.

"This program provides critical fuel assistance to low-income families, and I will work to ensure that funding remains available in the coming fiscal year," first district Rep. John Sununu pledged in a statement.

New Hampshire is set to receive $10.8 million to $13.2 million out of a total federal package that could range from $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion, said New Hampshire Fuel Assistance Program manager Celeste Lovett.

Still, she said, the $13.2 million maximum was "bare bones."

Despite concerns over national security and war, most Americans realize the need for the LIHEAP program, said the survey, which interviewed 800 Americans. It was commissioned by the Campaign for Home Energy Assistance, a lobbying group.

Among the figures included in the survey results: 72 percent of respondents said home heating help for the poor is too important to sacrifice for military spending; and 73 percent said it makes more sense for the federal government to pay the winter heating bills of low-income and elderly people than to pay for housing them in hospitals or shelters if they become ill or are forced from their homes.

Two-thirds of families receiving LIHEAP assistance earn less than $8,000 a year, and home heating costs are expected to grow by an average of 17 percent for natural gas customers and over 40 percent for Northeast heating oil customers, according to the Department of Energy's forecast.

Now uncertainty is high, Lovett said, because the budget plan for fiscal year 2003, and emergency funding for the coming winter, have not been released.

An appropriations bill for LIHEAP funding was passed by the Senate but is pending in the House.

The Senate legislation allots a guaranteed $1.7 billion for the program and an extra $300 million for emergency - termed contingency - spending.

But while growing uncertainty over a potential showdown with Iraq also has helped contribute this year to the rise in fuel prices, the Bush administration has not released any LIHEAP contingency funding for the winter.

The administration released $100 million from the contingency allotment in August, but New Hampshire did not qualify for the aid. That package was intended to provide relief from the summer heat and did not focus on home heating.

In addition, legislation attached to a congressional energy that House and Senate lawmakers are currently negotiating would increase the LIHEAP authorization ceiling to $3.4 billion.

Sununu and Bass, along with 72 other House members, have signed a letter to President Bush asking for the release of $200 million in contingency funds left over from last year for the coming winter.

"I am hopeful that President Bush will answer our call for the release of contingency LIHEAP funds to help New Hampshire and other Northeast states properly serve the many families in need for the coming winter," Bass said.

But Lovett said that, at least in the past, the Bush administration hasn't supplied adequate help.

"This past year our funding level was much less because no contingency funds were released" until after the winter, Lovett said. "New Hampshire did not have enough funds to supply all of the people" who qualified.

In fact, according to Lovett, 3,860 New Hampshire residents who qualified for the aid did not receive full benefits. Although some emergency and partial benefits were released, 527 of those people did not receive any funds at all.

Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.