Senators Push Budget Committee to Increase LIHEAP Funds
WASHINGTON, March 3- Harsh weather conditions and rising energy costs have prompted a bipartisan group of senators, including Massachusetts Democrats John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, to ask the Senate Budget Committee to allot $3 billion to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for the 2006 fiscal year-an increase of about 50 percent over President Bush’s proposal for the program.
“For many low-income families, disabled individuals and senior citizens living on fixed incomes, home energy costs are unaffordable,” the 39 senators said in a letter sent Tuesday to Budget Committee chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH) . “These families often carry a higher energy burden than most Americans – spending up to 17 percent of their income on home energy bills,” said the letter.
The program helps eligible low-income families meet the costs of heating their homes in the winter and cooling their homes in the summer. With the rising prices of natural gas, heating oil and propane, and the growing number of households eligible for LIHEAP, the program is underfunded, the letter said.
In response to the letter, Gregg said in a statement Wednesday, “It would be premature for me to say what specifics may or may not be in the Senate product.” The committee is expected to vote next week, he added.
Kerry, said in a statement Thursday, “We need to alleviate the burden for those seniors and families who have to choose between heat and basic necessities such as prescription drugs, housing and food by providing urgently needed LIHEAP funds.Massachusetts continues to be hit by powerful storms this season, but that does not mean people should live in continual financial crisis to get through the winter.”
Bush’s proposed budget for 2006 would allot $2 billion in basic and emergency funds to LIHEAP, which is $182 million less than it received for the current year, according to the Web site for the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), which oversees LIHEAP.
Under the Bush proposal, Massachusetts would receive about $74 million of the total, not including emergency funds, which is roughly $3.5 million less than it was allocated this year, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services released an additional $50 million in emergency LIHEAP funds, which includes about $2.8 million for Massachusetts, according to an HHS press release. Massachusetts received more funds than all states except New York and Pennsylvania.
“Today’s release of LIHEAP funding will help needy families in Massachusetts.,” Kennedy said in a statement Tuesday. “I applaud the Administration for today’s action.” The program allotted $100 million in emergency funds to the states in both December and January, according to the HHS. Massachusetts received $11.2 million of this total.
In the fiscal year2004, Massachusetts received an approximate total of $80.39 million in basic and emergency funds, said Phil Hailer, the communications director for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, in an interview Thursday. This fiscal year, he said, it has received almost $90 million so far.
Governor Mitt Romney signed a bill Friday allotting $7.5 million in state funds to the Massachusetts LIHEAP, according to the HHS Web site. According to Hailer, supplemental state funding for the program is “pretty rare.”
“It’s typically totally federally funded,” he said. “We’ve had our second pretty difficult winter in a row.” The state legislature ” must have figured these funds were indeed needed.”
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