The U.S. Senate today approved an amendment authored by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) that restores LIHEAP funding to the level that they worked to receive in Fiscal Year 2006. Senators Collins and Snowe’s amendment, which was approved as part of the fiscal year 2008 budget legislation, would provide an additional $3.2 billion in funding for the energy assistance program.
“The LIHEAP program is often the only safeguard many low-income families and elderly Americans have from nature’s unpredictable elements,” noted the Senators in a joint statement. “Without this assistance, families in Maine and across the country will struggle to pay their home heating or cooling bills. It is critical that Congress invests in this energy assistance program that so many Americans depend on.”
The budget proposal that was released earlier this month funded the LIHEAP program at $2.45 billion. In a letter to Congressional leadership, a bipartisan group of 35 state governors stated to Congressional Leadership that “the 2006 funding level of $3.2 billion gave eligible citizens in all of our states the purchasing power needed to pay their heating or cooling bills” and urged Congress to restore funding to $3.2 billion in FY2008.
In 2006, Senators Collins and Snowe successfully increased funding for the LIHEAP program from $2.2 billion to $3.2 billion. As a result of their amendment, the funding level has returned to $3.2 billion in the FY2008 Budget Resolution.
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