Mass. Lawmakers Seeking Increased Federal Heating Aid

David Enrich
States News Service
May 15, 2003

A geographically diverse alliance of lawmakers is pleading with House leaders to double funding for a program that helps needy families pay their heating and cooling bills.

Representatives Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat, and Charles "Chip" Pickering Jr., a Mississippi Republican, are organizing lawmakers who want to increase the 2004 budget for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, to $3.4 billion.

The bigger budget -- which proponents acknowledge is unlikely to be approved in full -- would send an extra $24.2 million to Massachusetts, bringing the state's annual LIHEAP allotment to more than $98 million, according to congressional estimates.

In a letter to be sent next week to House appropriators, more than 60 lawmakers -- including eight of Massachusetts' 10 congressmen -- argue that soaring energy prices and the weak economy necessitate a dramatically larger LIHEAP budget.

"The undersigned come from different climates and from all over the country," said a draft of the letter. "All of us have constituents who at some point during the year are forced to choose between keeping their homes at a healthy temperature and putting food on the table."

LIHEAP advocates say the program's budget hasn't kept pace with inflation over the past two decades. Last year, the program's $1.7 billion budget had about two-thirds the purchasing power of LIHEAP's 1982 budget.

Meanwhile, the rising unemployment rate is putting new pressure on the program as more people lose their jobs and become eligible for energy assistance.

The funding crunch not only has limited the amount of funding that can be doled out to low-income, elderly and disabled people, but it also has impeded state and local outreach efforts to encourage eligible families to apply.

In 2002, approximately 4.4 million households nationwide received LIHEAP money, but the vast majority of eligible households didn't receive any assistance. Absent an enlarged budget, lawmakers say, LIHEAP next winter will be able to serve roughly 15 percent of eligible households.

This winter, more than 130,000 Massachusetts households received up to $700 each in LIHEAP funds. The Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, which administers the state's LIHEAP program, says it gave aid to all eligible applicants, who can have household incomes of up to twice the federal poverty line of $18,100 for a family of four.

But Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, said that only one-quarter of eligible Massachusetts households applied for heating aid.

An additional $24 million in funds from Washington would enable Massachusetts to provide assistance to a greater number of households and to increase the maximum amount that households can receive in heating aid each winter.

"Most likely, what we would do is both," said Beth Bresnahan, spokeswoman for the state Department of Housing and Community Development. "We would increase the benefit level as well as expand the program."

Under a $3.4 billion LIHEAP budget, New England next year would receive a total of $215 million -- nearly $44 million above 2003 levels, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association.

In addition to Massachusetts' $24 million increase, Connecticut would enjoy an additional $10.2 million, Maine would receive $2.9 million above its 2003 levels, New Hampshire would get an extra $1.7 million, Rhode Island would snag $3.5 million more, and Vermont's allotment would grow by about $1.3 million.

But that extra funding is by no means a sure thing.

President Bush has requested that Congress keep LIHEAP's budget steady at $1.7 billion for the 2004 fiscal year. While House and Senate committees this spring preliminarily authorized a $3.4 billion LIHEAP budget, Congress isn't obligated to provide that much money.

"The problem is we're limited by the amount of money available" in the federal budget, said a senior congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I don't think anybody really thinks realistically we're going to get the $3.4 billion." He said Congress probably would incrementally increase in LIHEAP funding.

Several officials said that the collaboration between Markey and Pickering is providing a temporary respite from the regional feuds that have plagued the program.

While lawmakers from cold-weather northern and Midwestern states have been championing the program for years, few lawmakers from the South and West -- where air-conditioners are on more than heaters -- have embraced the program. Markey and Pickering acknowledged in a recent letter that their colleagues "may be shocked" to see them working together on LIHEAP.

This spring, Pickering tried to insert a provision into the House energy bill that would have changed the LIHEAP funding formula to send money from cold-weather states in New England and the Midwest to warmer states in the South and West.

Pickering's proposal would have cost New England a total of about $25 million -- nearly 15 percent of the region's annual LIHEAP funds.

After a bipartisan group of northeastern and Midwestern lawmakers threatened to derail the entire energy bill if it included the new LIHEAP formula, Pickering and his congressional allies abandoned the proposal.

Instead, they joined forces with cold-weather lawmakers to try to double LIHEAP's budget. Pickering's change of heart reflected the fact that southern states will benefit disproportionately from a larger LIHEAP budget.

"As you see the funding go up, it's less of a gain for the Northeast and Midwest," said Matthew Kane, an analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, which lobbies Congress on regional issues.

The inter-regional cooperation might not last long. Congress next year will need to reauthorize LIHEAP, providing a prime opportunity for southern and western lawmakers to try to overhaul the funding formulas. Southern senators already are pushing a formula change similar to what Pickering had proposed.

An aide to a Massachusetts Democrat said some lawmakers seem wedded to "a zero-sum game in which the South benefits by hurting the North."

"People worry about it," the aide said, on condition of anonymity. "If a change in the funding formula were to take place in the Senate, we'd have to build a coalition to kill that" in the House.

"Every time this comes up," Kane said, "it's a danger for the region."