U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe
(R-Maine)
With our first major snowstorm behind us this year, Mainers were again reminded that heating is a necessity and not a luxury. For far too many of our fellow Mainers, though, heating a home is simply not tenable for fixed budgets. That is precisely why programs like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are absolutely vital in states like Maine where our winters are protracted and harsh. LIHEAP is a federal block grant program that provides states with annual funding to operate home energy assistance programs for seniors and low-income households.
I have fought every appropriations cycle since the program was implemented in 1980 for the now nearly 70,000 Mainers who have come to rely on the LIHEAP program and have no other option to fulfill this basic requirement to simply get through winter. I also led a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services requesting the Department allocate funding for cold-weather states like Maine now so families are able to determine how much fuel assistance they may receive as they plan their budgets. Furthermore, back in June I led a letter with 37 of my colleagues telling Congress to avoid severely cutting this program, especially given the state of our economy.
However, the failure by Congress to enact basic federal appropriations bills has perpetuated uncertainty over federal LIHEAP allocations for states for the upcoming winter season. The inability of Congress to do its job coupled with a 27 percent increase in home heating oil in 2011 is a deadly combination for Mainers’ and Northeasterners who rely on this assistance to provide basic heating necessities for their families. Even the Energy Information Administration recently noted that “average expenditures for households that heat with oil are forecast to be higher than in any previous winter.”
In the Administration, the President’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget proposal to cut 49 percent of LIHEAP resources exemplifies the misplaced priorities within the President’s budget and must be rejected. While the President simultaneously proposed to increase taxes by $1.6 trillion for families and small businesses, he wants to make deep cuts to assistance for America’s low and middle income families and seniors hit hardest by the weak economy. The bottom-line is that our least fortunate should not carry the burden of budget cuts in this time of fiscal austerity, especially for a program that provides a basic necessity.
Unfortunately, the Obama Administration announced on October 28th that it was releasing just $1.7 billion for LIHEAP – substantially less than the $3.6 billion proposed in the U.S. Senate. Estimates suggest Maine will receive only $23.9 million of this funding. The Administration’s failure to recognize the hardship of home heating oil prices on low income families was a mistake in the President’s budget, and this recent announcement simply is tone-deaf to the economic challenges facing Mainers. While it is critical we forcefully address our country’s deficit, under these figures LIHEAP is funded at roughly 60 percent less than last year. I call on the President to reassess this decision as well as his dramatic proposed cut for fuel assistance and ensure that the LIHEAP program, a critical lifeline to thousands of families, is not disproportionately cut in a constrained federal budget.
In that vein, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and I sent a letter signed by 32 of our colleagues to Senate leadership on Nov. 10th requesting that this funding be restored. Specifically, we requested that under any appropriations bill that Congress considers prior to the expiration of the Continuing Resolution that they provide funding for LIHEAP, including emergency funds, at no less than the Fiscal Year 2011 level through September 30, 2012.
The recent rise of heating oil prices exacerbates what would already be a challenging winter, and I am working with my colleagues to ensure that emergency funds would be available if heating oil costs remain at these historically high levels. During these troubling economic times, Mainers and Americans are being forced to make challenging decisions with limited budgets. Providing minimal heat is simply a necessity that cannot be casualty of our broken budgetary system.
