Legislation
$1.7 Billion Released for LIHEAP
The federal government has released $1.7 billion to help low-income Americans pay for heating. But many lawmakers are concerned that the figure isn’t nearly enough, and are also worried about a possible change in how future funds are allocated.
Ruth Ann Adams of Stillwater, Minn., is blind, lives on Social Security, and depends on LIHEAP funding to make ends meet. She points out where she has marked her thermostat so she can turn off the heat and set it at a temperature that will not run up the gas bill. (Photo By: ZUMA Press/Newscom)
The money is part of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. The Department of Health and Human Services made the funds available to states, territories and tribes Oct. 28.
“We are releasing these funds now to ensure low-income families are able to meet their heating cost expenses this winter,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
The funds come from a continuing resolution that Congress passed to keep the government operating through Nov. 18, while a fiscal 2012 budget is debated.
The initial allocation amount for fiscal 2012 is significantly less than in past years, because HHS chose to err on the side of caution with the disbursement due to uncertainty in Congress over the total LIHEAP funding for FY 2012, NRECA officials said.
The Labor-HHS appropriations bill in the House provides $3.339 billion in funding for LIHEAP, while the Senate version provides $3.6 billion. The program received $4.7 billion in FY 2011.
“New Hampshire has just been hit by our first snowstorm and it is only October. More LIHEAP funding needs to be released quickly, because the families who rely on the assistance can’t afford to wait,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
Several lawmakers are also taking issue with the Labor-HHS appropriations bill in the House that would change the way LIHEAP funds have been allocated since 1980. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said his state was among the colder-weather states that would receive a smaller percentage under the House measure.
“With winter on the way and the price of heating oil expected to be higher than ever, now is not the time to pass a plan that would result in warmer-weather states receiving the funds that Ohioans rely on to stay warm in the winter,” Brown said.
That sentiment was echoed by 23 members of the New York congressional delegation, who sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, asking that it “refrain from making a significant policy change over a month into the fiscal year.”
Tags: Legislation, LIHEAP