Kerry’s Amendment Shot Down
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 -The Senate late Wednesday night rejected a proposal that would have added $3.1 billion of emergency funding to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
While up to $5.1 billion can spent on the program, the Senate is currently only planning on spending $2.183 billion. Wednesday’s proposal, an amendment to a defense spending bill, would have raised the actual funding to the maximum.
The program, known as LIHEAP for short, helps lower income, elderly and disabled residents pay their heating bills.
“The tight natural gas market and the devastating impact of the recent hurricanes have resulted in unusually high fuel price forecasts for the foreseeable future,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who sponsored the amendment, said during floor debate. “Rapidly rising energy costs hit low and fixed income individuals particularly hard. High prices force working families to choose warmth over other basic necessities.”
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. In 2005, the average recipient received $318 in assistance.
Mr. Kerry’s amendment was thrown out after a procedural measure prevented the Senate from voting on it.
“By blocking the LIHEAP amendment on procedural vote, the Republican leadership has sent a terrible message to Americans because tonight politics was placed ahead of helping families,” Mr. Kerry said in a press release. “It’s the wrong choices in Washington that have put us in this energy crisis, and now it’s politics as usual standing in the way of fixing this mess.”
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a cosponsor of the amendment, added in a press statement: “Congress needs to stand up for the millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet. We have the ability to tell the elderly, and the disabled, and many others that we¹ve heard them, and that we won¹t leave them shivering in the cold this winter.”
The Energy Information Administration has projected the average price per gallon for heating oil this winter to be $2.42 while the projected price per thousand cubic feet for natural gas is $20.64.
However the Energy Information Administration published data Monday saying that the average current price of home heating oil for Massachusetts was $2.57 a gallon.
Last October the average cost for home heating oil in New England was $1.93 per gallon
“If we learned anything from the past months it’s that we need to prepare for trouble ahead,” Mr. Kerry added in his statement. “With the defeat of this amendment, we remain unprepared for what may be a long, cold and expensive winter for millions of American families.”
On Thursday, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney planned to meet with Sen. Arlen Specter, R- Penn., in Washington to discuss a letter that Mr. Romney and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm had sent requesting $1.276 billion of additional funds for the program. Specter chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the program.
The letter, signed by 28 other governors said that energy assistance “budgets will be further stretched as we attempt to meet the needs of hurricane evacuees, many of whom lost virtually everything in the storm. Additional funding will allow us to aid these newest residents and those who have traditionally relied on LIHEAP assistance.”
Mr. Romney was optimistic about the meeting, said his press secretary, Julie Teer.
“The governor feels that Sen. Specter will have a sympathetic ear since he also represents a state in the northeast,” Teer said. “Gov. Romney would like as much federal assistance as we can get but he recognizes that it may be a difficult process.”
