"LIHEAP funds are vital to many families across the nation who struggle to pay the bills in order to stay warm during the long, harsh winters," Senator Collins said. "People are jeopardizing their health and safety in order to pay essential home energy bills. By adequately funding LIHEAP, we can offer assistance to millions of these families."
"Many low-income seniors and working families entered this winter without heat or electricity due to unaffordable energy prices last year, and thousands of these families remain without heat. The President can help them now by release the remaining LIHEAP emergency funding," Reed stated. "Also, we must be prepared for the cold weather and high energy costs next year and provide $3 billion for LIHEAP in fiscal year 2006. Families should not have to choose between paying their bills and buying food."
Following is the text of the letter:
The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides a vital safety net for our nation's low-income households. LIHEAP helps low-income families and seniors remain healthy and secure from bitter cold winters in the North and hot summers in the South. We are writing to request that the budget provide $3 billion for LIHEAP in fiscal 2006 and that the allocation provide for advance appropriations for fiscal 2007. With $3 billion in regular funding and advance appropriations, LIHEAP can help working low-income families, senior citizens, and disabled individuals maintain economic stability.
For many low-income families, disabled individuals, and senior citizens living on fixed incomes, home energy costs are unaffordable. These families often carry a higher energy burden than most Americans – spending up to 17 percent of their income on home energy bills. Each year, this burden grows as natural gas, heating oil and propane prices continue to increase.
Since 1981, the number of households eligible for LIHEAP assistance has grown. This winter, LIHEAP will serve an estimated 5 million households. Yet, this is only about 15 percent of the 32 million households that are eligible for federal assistance. We recognize the difficult choices that you face in shaping the fiscal 2006 budget resolution, however, we believe that the continued growth in households eligible for LIHEAP assistance demonstrates that the need for this program has never been greater. The LIHEAP program remains seriously underfunded. The program needs at least $3 billion simply to equal the purchasing power it provided in 1982.
Energy is a basic need, and without LIHEAP assistance, low-income families and senior citizens face the impossible choice between paying their home energy bills or affording other basic necessities such as prescription drugs, housing and food. The Boston Medical Center found that many poor children with chronic health conditions start to lose weight and suffer additional health problems associated with malnutrition in the winter because their families are spending less of their income on food and medicine and more on fuel bills. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association surveyed over 2,000 LIHEAP recipients on the choices made by households when faced with high-energy bills. The survey found that in the last five years:
* 38 percent of LIHEAP recipients went without medical or dental care;
* 30 percent went without filling a prescription or taking the full dose of a prescribed medicine;
* 28 percent did not make a rent or mortgage payment;
* 22 percent went without food for at least one day; and
* 21 percent became sick because their home was too cold.
We also request advance funding for LIHEAP. Advance funding enables states to pre-purchase fuel and start planning for the winter heating season in spring and early summer. Advance LIHEAP funding allows states to plan more efficiently and improve program management, and therefore, be more economical with limited Federal resources. It also ensures that states provide timely assistance to low-income families who cannot afford to wait.
Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to working with you to make sure that working families, seniors and disabled individuals have the resources necessary to provide for their basic energy needs.
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