Additional LIHEAP Funding Requested
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15- Reps. John Olver, James McGovern and Richard Neal have called for increased funds for a federal home energy assistance program.
The legislators made their requests in a pair of letters. One, sent September 8, called for an additional $900 million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program this winter, while the other asked that its 2006 fiscal year funding be raised to $4 billion.
The program helps low income, elderly and disabled residents pay their heating bills.
“As you consider additional emergency supplemental funding in response to this disaster we urge you to give serious thought to the wider effects this catastrophe will have beyond the shades of the Gulf,” the legislators, as well as 55 colleagues, wrote to President Bush in the September 8 letter.
The letter noted that the nation was “feeling the squeeze” of energy prices even before Katrina hit and as winter approaches, there may be a “looming crisis for our cold weather states,” particularly those in the Northeast. The additional funds for the program, called LIHEAP for short, would help offset the cost of a future disaster similar to Hurricane Katrina.
“As a result [of Katrina], we can expect to face the most expensive winter heating season in history across the country,” the letter said. “It is also our responsibility to address the wider ramifications of this natural disaster and avert another crisis down the road by providing additional LIHEAP emergency funds.”
Neal added: “The president declared an emergency in the Gulf. This problem is not limited there. The hurricane is going to cause a disruption throughout the country.”
Fifty members from both parties signed the second letter, sent on Wednesday to two House and Senate appropriations subcommittee chairmen and ranking members, requesting an increase in funding to $4 billion in the 2006 fiscal year. Currently, the House bill allots $2 billion for 2006, while the Senate has yet to approve its bill.
“Without LIHEAP millions of senior citizens on fixed incomes, working families with children and persons with disabilities from one end of the country to the next would be forced to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table,” the legislators wrote. “In the richest country in the world, no one should ever have to make that unacceptable choice.”
To qualify for the program, a household’s gross income may not exceed 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. A family of four, for example, would need to have an income below $38,700 to qualify.
The Energy Information Administration expects residential per-household expenditure for fuels this winter to increase 71 percent for natural gas, 17 percent for electricity, 31 percent for heating oil and 40 percent for propane compared to last winter.
“There needs to be a backup plan,” Neal said. “People had trouble paying there bills last year and if you add an increase in fuel costs, that only compounds the problem.”
Since 2001, the price of heating oil has increased to $1,261. In 2005, the average recipient received $318 in assistance.
“More than ever, Massachusetts residents are going to need help when they get their heating bills this winter,” Olver said. ” We need to make sure this winter that families don’t have to make a choice between heating their homes and purchasing necessities like food or medicine.”
