U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

NEWS FROM VERMONT’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy | U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords | U.S. Congressman Bernie Sanders

Vermont Low Income Families
To Get Modest Boost In Home Heating Assistance

(TUESDAY, Nov. 23) – U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords and Congressman Bernie Sanders announced Tuesday that Vermont will receive more than $11 million for heating assistance from the federal government.  The funds, made available through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), were approved as part of a spending package cleared by Congress over the weekend.

LIHEAP was funded at $1.98 billion nationally for fiscal year 2005, a $100 million increase over last year.  In addition, Congress provided $300 million in emergency funds compared to last year’s $100 million contingency fund.  With record high home heating oil prices, the Vermont Congressional delegation has been pushing the Bush Administration and members of Congress to substantially expand the program.  The U.S. Department of Energy projects a 28 percent rise in national home heating oil prices this winter.  In 2004, more than 18,000 Vermont households benefited from the LIHEAP program.

“Vermonters are already suffering from home heating oil sticker shock,” said Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  “Vermonters who are struggling to keep their families warm and keep their families fed and healthy need this assistance to get them through the winter.  We’ll keep working to increase the amount of assistance available.”

"With the temperatures dropping and oil costs rising, this program is more important than ever to Vermont," said Jeffords.  "No one should have to choose between heating and eating this winter." 

"Without this increase many Vermonters, including a lot of seniors, would face the difficult choice between buying food and heating their homes because heating oil prices have increased by more than 35 percent since last year," said Sanders, who earlier this year passed an amendment on the House floor to increase LIHEAP and weatherization by $22 million.  “This increase is a step in the right direction but so much more needs to be done.  No one in the U.S. should go cold in the winter."

The LIHEAP program faces reauthorization next year, an opportunity the delegation plans to use to increase the program’s funding level.  Last week, Jeffords and Leahy were joined by 24 other senators in urging Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to quickly take up the reauthorization of LIHEAP and increase funding to $3.4 billion when Congress meets in January.   

Vermonters looking for home heating assistance should contact the Vermont Office of Home Heating Fuel Assistance at 1-800-479-6151 or 1-802-241-1165.  Visit them online at http://www.dpath.state.vt.us/Programs_Pages/Fuel/fuel.htm.

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