Keep everyone warm in winter:
It would be unconscionable to cut home-heating assistance.

Des Moines Register (Des Moines, IA)
August 26, 2002

Federal help for low-income Iowans who can’t afford to pay their heating bills is never enough.

Yet President Bush has proposed spending even less in the coming year. It’s hard to see how this cash-strapped state will come up with the money to fill the gap.

For the budget year that begins Oct. 1, Bush proposes spending $1.44 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assis-tance Program for regular state grants. This year, $1.7 billion went to regular state grants. Iowa Senator Charles Grassley in a recent press release noted that he’s worked to boost the total authorization level for the program to $3.4 billion.

For Iowa, Bush’s proposal could cut about $5 million from the $31 million it received this year for the regular pro-gram, said Jerry McKim of the Iowa Department of Human Rights. That would hurt. Most Iowans who receive low-income energy assistance are very poor, and most are not on welfare.

If $5 million is cut, it's likely those who qualify will get less help — the average heating-assistance benefit was $222 this year — rather than raising the bar for eligibility, McKirn said.

About half of households helped by the program have a disabled member, according to the state. About one-third have an elderly member. Most recipi-ents live in single-family homes where annual heating costs typically exceed $1,000.

That’s unaffordable for people living in poverty, or slightly above, and there are few other places to turn for relief.

Less energy assistance may mean they forgo food or prescription drugs or risk their lives by using unsafe heating methods or turning the thermostat down too low. Some end up homeless.

The Low-Income Home Energy As-sistance Program, also known as LIHEAP, doesn't begin to meet the need. In the harsh winter of 2000-01, several thousand eligible Iowans were turned away, McKim said. The Iowa Legislature agreed to spend $10.5 million on a one-time basis to help out, but even that fell short.

The president is not really proposing less money for LIHEAP next year, said a Bush administration official Friday. That’s because he is hopeful that at least $600 million in emergency funds will be available as a backstop, if Congress agrees. There should be money available if unanticipated needs arise, and fuel prices are expected to be relatively low, she said.

But that’s the problem: Needs already go unmet, and no one knows how frigid the weather this winter will be. No wonder McKim is nervous about the possibility of getting less aid for Iowa. Emergency money is released at Washington's discretion, so the state can't count on it being available.

The Senate Appropriations Committee in July approved $1.7 billion in regular state grants for LIHEAP, plus $300 million for emergencies for the new budget year. The House is expected to act after Labor Day, and to do less, in line with the president's pro-posal. That would be unconscionable.