A diverse alliance forms on fuel aid

David Enrich
States News Service
May 22, 2003

WASHINGTON -- A geographically diverse alliance of lawmakers is urging 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 seeking to increase the 2004 budget for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, to $3.4 billion.

The increased budget, which some proponents acknowledge is unlikely to be approved in its entirety, 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 House appropriators, more than 100 lawmakers, including all 10 Massachusetts 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,'' the letter said.

''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 only two-thirds the purchasing power of LIHEAP's 1982 budget.

Meanwhile, rising unemployment is placing new pressure on the program as more people become eligible for energy assistance.

In 2002, approximately 4.4 million households nationwide received LIHEAP money, but the vast majority of households that could didn't receive assistance. At current levels, lawmakers say, LIHEAP next winter will serve only 15 percent of eligible households.

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

But procuring the extra funding is a long shot. 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 earlier authorized a $3.4 billion LIHEAP budget, Congress isn't obligated to provide that much money.

A senior congressional aide said nobody on Capitol Hill ''really thinks realistically we're going to get the $3.4 billion.'' He said Congress probably would incrementally increase LIHEAP funding.
Still, LIHEAP boosters say the bipartisan and geographically diverse mix of lawmakers who have signed the letter will put pressure on appropriators to increase the funding over last year's levels.

''It's a reflection of political support for the program,'' said an aide to a Massachusetts Democrat. Congressional appropriators ''look at things like this and see how much support there is, and that's one of the things that goes into how much funding goes in.''

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.

The collaboration between Markey and Pickering ''is actually a pretty significant breakthrough,'' said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association. With a geographically diverse coalition, he said, ''you won't have that kind of fight where Southern members come in and say, `Who needs this?' ''

Pickering's support seems especially significant. This spring, the conservative Mississippian attempted to insert a provision into a 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.

The inter-regional cooperation might not last long. Congress will soon need to reauthorize LIHEAP, providing a prime opportunity for Southern and Western lawmakers to try to overhaul the funding formulas.

This story ran on page A4 of the Boston Globe on 5/22/2003.