"Our nation was recently struck by three extremely powerful hurricanes. While these hurricanes were devastating to the people of the Gulf Coast, they have also had a major impact on the rest of the nation. At a time when the nation should be building oil supplies for the winter heating season, these hurricanes disrupted our already strained supplies and sent both heating oil and gasoline prices to painfully high levels," Senator Collins said. "This amendment reflects a realistic need for more assistance in this program. For low income families, LIHEAP funds can be the factor that prevents families from having to choose between turning off the heat or putting food on the table."
Senator Collins, co-chair of the Northeast-Midwest coalition, has long been committed to seeing LIHEAP assistance funded at an adequate level.
Each year, 4.5 million low-income families rely on LIHEAP to assist with the costs of heating their homes. LIHEAP is a federal block grant program that provides states with annual funding to operate home energy assistance programs for low-income households. In addition to helping to pay energy bills for low-income families and the elderly, LIHEAP helps to fund energy crisis intervention programs, low-cost residential weatherization and other energy-related home repairs.
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