[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2975]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             LIHEAP FUNDING

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a very 
important Federal program that helps hundreds of thousands of Michigan 
families and millions of Americans across the country. The Low Income 
Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, is critically 
important for families and seniors who struggle to pay high energy 
bills to heat their homes in the winter and cool their homes in the 
summer. Without LIHEAP, many of these households would be forced to 
make the impossible choice between paying for energy or paying for food 
and medicine.
  Today is the National Fuel Funds Network's Washington Action Day for 
LIHEAP and folks from many different States will be walking the Halls 
of Congress to make sure we know how important it is to fully fund 
LIHEAP.
  As winter kicks into high gear, the importance of the LIHEAP program 
is even more pronounced. According to the Energy Information 
Administration, American households spent an average of $948 in 2006 on 
their winter heating needs--an increase of $250 over the 2000-2001 
winter season. That might seem like a modest increase, but for most 
Americans living paycheck to paycheck, it could have disastrous effects 
on their household budgets. LIHEAP assistance, which emphasizes 
partnerships between utilities, charitable organizations, and State 
governments, is a highly effective and cost-efficient way for our 
country to help the neediest families manage these incremental 
increases in their home energy costs. It has thus become an important 
component of our social safety net.
  Not surprisingly, LIHEAP assistance historically has been targeted to 
cold-weather States in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. In the State of 
Michigan, for instance, more than 470,000 households received LIHEAP 
aid in 2006. In recent years, however, the program has been retooled in 
order to recognize the need to provide similar assistance to warm-
weather States in the South and Southwest to help their neediest 
citizens meet their home cooling needs. Last year, more than 6.2 
million households received assistance nationwide, including many new 
families in the warm-weather areas.
  Unfortunately, the LIHEAP program has never been funded to its 
authorized level--which recently was raised to $5 billion as part of 
the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Even though LIHEAP was funded at $3.1 
billion in fiscal year 2006 the highest level ever--many who are 
eligible remain unable to get help because there are simply not enough 
funds to help them. We need to take a good, hard look at our funding 
efforts so that we are not forced to make unfair choices between cold 
and warm-weather States, much less deny support to eligible recipients.
  Increased gas prices, unforeseen medical bills, sudden unemployment, 
or any other unexpected situation that causes a family's living costs 
to rise while their income stays fixed, forces families to make some 
truly hard choices. But no one should have to choose between the need 
to heat and the need to eat. At its foundation, the LIHEAP program 
helps these families deal with one of the most basic of their needs--a 
warm home in wintertime as they work to regain their footing.
  Today, the National Fuel Funds Network has mobilized a coalition of 
charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army and The Heat And 
Warmth Fund, THAW, utilities such as CMS Energy and DTE Energy of 
Michigan, State government officials, and low-income constituents to 
meet with congressional offices to educate Congress about the LIHEAP 
program and make the case for greater funding. I commend the organizers 
and participants of today's Washington Action Day for LIHEAP, and I 
urge my colleagues to support and fully fund the LIHEAP program. By 
supporting this important program, we are supporting hard-working 
American families. It is the right thing to do.

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