LIHEAP Funding Increase Fails for a Second Time
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20–For the second time this month an amendment supported by most New England senators that has increased funds for energy assistance was defeated before it hit the Senate floor.
A group of senators, including John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, Democrats from Massachusetts, attempted on Thursday to attach $3.1 billion in funds for the Low Income House Energy Assistance Program to the transportation spending bill. The funds would supplement the $2 billion already allocated for the program, bringing its total funding up to the maximum of $5.1 billion allowed in this year’s energy bill.
In early October an amendment to the defense appropriations bill was defeated. In both cases, the amendments were proposed as emergency funding, but failed to achieve the 60 votes required to waive normal spending rules.
Earlier this week Melissa Wagoner, a spokeswoman for Sen. Kennedy, said it didn’t matter whether the amendment was germane to the bills to which they are attached because the funds were needed so much.
In a press release Thursday afternoon, Sen. Kennedy said, ” It’s shameful that the Republican leadership have decided to use a procedural maneuver once again to block emergency funding” for the program.
Sen. Kerry, “lead cosponsor” of the amendment, called a lack of support among Republicans “criminal negligence.”
David Fox, executive director of the Campaign for Home Energy Assistance, was disappointed with the result but said he was hopeful that the heating assistance would eventually pass.
“We picked up three more votes,” he said, referring to the 53 senators who voted to bring the transportation amendment to a vote, up from the 50 who supported the defense amendment early this month.
Mr. Fox suggested that senators may feel the upcoming Labor, Housing and Human Services appropriations bill would be a more appropriate vehicle for the amendment because the program is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services.
April Boyd, a spokeswoman for Sen. Kerry, said the senators are attempting to get amendments passed instead of waiting for the labor and housing bill because “families need the money now, and Sen. Kerry doesn’t want to wait.” She said that Hurricane Katrina showed that government should not wait until a crisis to act, adding that Kerry would continue to “attach the amendment at any opportunity.”
New Hampshire Republican Senator John Sununu was one of the new “yes” votes, making his New Hampshire GOP colleague, Sen. Judd Gregg, the only New England senator to vote against the transportation amendment.
A recent report by Boston-based consulting firm Fisher, Sheehan and Colton said Massachusetts has the second highest gap in the nation between the projected cost of heating a home this winter and what low-income families can afford to pay for energy. The report puts that gap at $1,786 for the winter. Last year Massachusetts’ poorest energy assistance recipients received $730 in aid, Worcester Community Action Council Executive director Patsy Lewis said earlier this week.
