By David Fox
Campaign for Home Energy Assistance
August 28, 2003

The hottest part of the summer may not seem like the right time to think about home energy assistance, but the timing could not be more critical. In fact, Congress will decide in a just few weeks on the fate of a program that keeps our nation's elderly, disabled and poor from freezing in the winter and succumbing to summer heat.

The House of Representatives voted in July to fund the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, at $1.7 billion for the next fiscal year -- roughly $200 million less than the current level of spending for the program and $200 million less than President Bush had recommended. The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, has voted to fund LIHEAP at $2 billion with no emergency money. Even the Senate bill, which should be voted upon in September, fails to meet current needs; the House reduction is unacceptable. Such a cutback could be devastating for those least able to shoulder the burden of higher energy costs.

To characterize those costs as higher is an understatement.

Price volatility, harsher winter temperatures and scalding summer heat have already combined with an unstable economy to create a "perfect storm" that has hammered our nation's most vulnerable citizens.

Seniors, people with disabilities and the working poor have been particularly hard hit. They generally carry a higher energy burden than most American households -- spending up to 20 percent of their income on home energy bills. For these people, the price tag has become dangerously unaffordable

In recent testimony before a congressional committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he was worried about the runup in natural gas prices, which have doubled over the past year, and the impact higher prices could have on the economy. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, meanwhile, has warned that the average residential winter heating bill for a typical Midwest consumer could be $915 next winter -- a 19 percent increase over last year -- if this prices continue to rise.

If the warnings of the Fed Chairman and Energy Secretary are to be taken seriously, and we believe they must, a $200 million reduction in LIHEAP could amount to a draconian cutback in energy buying power for those living on the edge of poverty.

LIHEAP is a federally funded program that was created to help eligible low-income households meet their home heating and cooling needs. For more than 25 years, it has provided states with grants to help citizens in need who are unable to pay their utility bills in the coldest and hottest months.

From the very beginning, however, the program has been underfunded, and states are forced to turn away thousands of qualified applicants when their programs run out of money each year. The Northeast-Midwest Senate Coalition has estimated that LIHEAP will need more than $3 billion next year just to match the purchasing power it provided in 1982. A sizable percentage of the American public --and the number grows each day -- need the short-term relief that LIHEAP provides.

The National Energy Assistance Directors Association estimates that, with an appropriation of $1.7 billion plus the release of $200 million in emergency money this year, the states have been able to help only 17 percent of the U.S. households that were eligible for assistance.
House lawmakers have said they did the best they could for LIHEAP and other important programs included in bill that funds the Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services and Education, but their best was simply not good enough.

Now is not the time to turn our backs on more than 4 million Americans annually who, through no fault of their own, must ask their neighbors for help. Funding the program adequately so that fewer Americans are turned away when they need assistance makes sense. And it's the right thing to do.

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David Fox is communications director for the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Home Energy Assistance, a coalition of advocates for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Among its members are the Alliance to Save Energy, American Gas Association, American Petroleum Institute, American Public Power Association, Edison Electric Institute, National Fuel Funds Network, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and The Salvation Army.
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