DeLauro Meets with Local Seniors, Calls for Additional Home Heating Funds

New Haven, CT— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) today visited the East Haven Senior Center and spoke about the changes to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

LIHEAP is a federal program that provides annual home-heating grants for low-income households, and is distributed in two ways: to states using a statutory formula, and allocated by the Administration in cases of emergency. From her seat on the Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee, Congresswoman DeLauro has long been a champion of LIHEAP and helped to double its funding to $5.1 billion in 2008.

Of $590 million of LIHEAP contingency funds made available this year, $490 million was released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in January using a new formula focusing on states with high unemployment numbers and unusually cold winters. This meant that states with traditionally cold winters and unemployment rates comparable to national levels received a relatively smaller portion of the funds than in past years.

Congresswoman DeLauro said, "The combination of unseasonably cold weather and the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression has left families struggling across America. With snow on the ground in 49 out of the 50 states last week, the Administration has justly tried to help people all over the country, but the new LIHEAP formula has literally left the Northeastern states out in the cold.

"To me, providing this assistance during a home heating crisis is a simple matter of values. I believe government has a moral obligation to make sure that our most vulnerable citizens are cared for. I urge Secretary Sebelius to act in the best interests of the struggling families of the Northeast, and I look forward to working with her to make sure the LIHEAP program continues to get the funding it needs."

Congresswoman DeLauro and her congressional colleagues from all of the Northeastern states sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday, February 16, calling for the remaining $100 million to be released. The text of the letter appears below.

February 16, 2010

The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius Secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Secretary Sebelius,

We write today as members of Congress concerned with the distribution used by your Department to allocate the $490 million in contingency funds released through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) on January 20, and to urge that you release the remaining $100 million in FY10 LIHEAP contingency funds to cold-weather states.

While we appreciate the degree to which your Department attempted to address the needs of states experiencing high unemployment and unseasonably cold winters, it should not come at the expense of consumers in cold-weather states who are still struggling mightily this winter to stay warm. Heating costs in cold-weather states consume more of low-income consumers' income and rely disproportionately on price-volatile energy sources like home heating oil. According to the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Short-Term Energy outlook released last month, home heating oil is the only winter heating source projected to rise in cost this winter – by as much as 19 percent in the Midwest alone. The EIA projects that the average Northeastern fuel oil household will spend nearly $2,000 in heating costs this winter.

Simply put, our constituents live in states that experience some of the harshest, coldest winters in the United States. According the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) at the U.S. Department of Commerce, average temperatures in the Northeast and Upper Midwest were 15 to 25 degrees colder this past December than in the Southeastern U.S. For low-income consumers in our states, winters often force many families to confront stark choices between heating their homes and feeding their families.

For these reasons, we hope you will utilize the remaining LIHEAP contingency funds to assist cold-weather states in aiding their low-income residents this winter. We appreciate your understanding of an issue that is so important to our individual states.

Sincerely,