Keeping the Heat On

Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
January 15, 2003

PROTESTS FROM both Republican and Democratic lawmakers over the administration's failure to fully fund the home heating program for the poor have resulted in a change of course. Last week the US Department of Health and Human Services released funds at roughly last year's level. Lawmakers should keep the pressure on to make sure the administration also uses its $300 million emergency fund if conditions require.

This is not a good winter for President Bush to waffle on his campaign promise to protect the government's home heating program for low-income households. His budget allotted just $1.4 billion to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP - 18 percent less than was spent last year. The cut was based on a Department of Energy forecast of lower fuel prices. Instead, weather and world events have already pushed heating oil prices up 22 percent over last winter.

Last year Congress appropriated $1.7 billion for the program, which benefits 4 million to 5 million low-income, elderly, and disabled people. Two-thirds of the recipients live on less than $8,000 a year. In 2001, Congress also created a $300 million emergency fund.

Last July Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa sponsored a heating assistance bill for this winter maintaining last winter's spending level, but Congress did not agree on an appropriation before adjourning last month. The first disbursement last October was at the lower level favored by the administration.

This was in spite of the statement Bush made during the October 2000 presidential debate in Boston: "First and foremost, we've got to make sure we fully fund LIHEAP, which is a way to help low-income folks, particularly here in the East, pay their high fuel bills." His own Energy Information Administration is predicting that the hike in heating oil prices could reach 41 percent, with a 31 percent increase for natural gas.

As the winter began, state agencies that distribute the funds had to change their disbursement formulas to meet the reduction, either by tightening eligibility rules, cutting allotments, or planning to stop the program earlier in the heating season. Last week's higher disbursement should ease the situation, but there is still uncertainty about how much aid will be available as winter drags on.

According to Charlie Harak of the National Consumer Law Center in Boston, the number of applicants for aid in Massachusetts is the highest in nine years. Even though last winter was relatively mild, he said, a weak economy has left many households beginning this winter in arrears.

Wade Horn, an HHS official, said it will "entertain requests from states" for the emergency money. If Bush is to fulfill his campaign pledge, the department should fund all valid requests.