Independents, GOP, and Dem Leaders Join To Restore Home Energy Assistance Funding

 Republican, Democrat and Independent Senators unite to call for a restoration of funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

“Winter is approaching and LIHEAP is on the chopping block,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) told reporters on Wednesday. “Millions of Americans are facing the prospect of being literally left out in the cold and struggling to pay for liters worth of heat.”

LIHEAP is the federal program that assists low income families and seniors on fixed incomes with their energy bills. Last year Congress provided $4.7 billion for LIHEAP. This year, however, the administration has proposed a 45 percent cut to LIHEAP, which would bring it down to around $2.5 million in 2012.

“These cutbacks are frustrating - in fact beyond frustrating - because they put vulnerable citizens at risk,” Reed deplored. “It does not make sense to cut LIHEAP when people are struggling financially and heating costs are going up.”

“We need to act quickly,” Reed continued, “because winter won’t wait.”

Average expenditures for households that heat with oil or propane are forecasted to be higher this year than any other previous winter, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cited. Heating prices have increased by 21 percent since LIHEAP was instituted 30 years ago. Prices over the past five years have increased from $2.40 per gallon to as much as $3.80 per gallon.

LIHEAP currently delivers as little as 78 gallons of home heating oil, which is a mere 10 percent of this year’s heating costs.

“78 gallons is a far cry from the 850 gallons required just to make it through a winter,” Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) remarked. “Only in Congress does this sort of math make sense.” 

“This is America and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that no American goes cold this winter,” Sanders concluded.