Pennsylvania won't be getting more money from the federal government to help low-income
households pay heating bills this winter.
Just hours after Gov. Ed Rendell said he was certain of an additional $1 billion in federal heating-assistance
funds, and was hopeful of $2 billion more than that, Congress eliminated all new federal aid for this winter.
In addition, it cut by 1 percent the existing appropriation for the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
Program, known as LIHEAP.
Lawmakers then went home for the holidays and aren't expected back, in the case of the House, until Jan. 31.
The 1 percent cut for Pennsylvania, which had been expecting $120 million, amounts to $1.2 million.
Given the average LIHEAP cash grant of $243, some 4,938 fewer households will get help.
"This is disappointing news on many levels," Rendell press secretary Kate Philips said. "For the families
that depended on the federal government to prioritize and serve with their needs in mind, this is the worst kind of neglect.
With northern states facing a brutal winter, to essentially discount the needs of their citizens is mind-boggling."
She said the fact that Pennsylvania was struggling to make up for the lack of sufficient federal heating-assistance
funds with state money made the federal action "even more frustrating."
The additional money for this winter was eliminated in two separate actions. The $1 billion in additional
LIHEAP funding that had been in a budget reconciliation bill was changed from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2007, according to Richard
Kogen, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank that tracks the issue.
Kogen believes the LIHEAP money had been added to that bill as a sweetener to attract votes from senators
who might otherwise be opposed to other provisions in the bill, which reduced about $50 billion in spending for Medicaid,
food stamps and student loans, among other things.
Kogen said an additional $2 billion for LIHEAP had been added to the defense appropriations bill as a sweetener
to get moderate lawmakers in northern states to vote for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That money was
axed by the Republican leadership after failing to defeat a Democratic filibuster against the drilling provision, he added.
The oil-drilling authorization, the $2 billion in additional LIHEAP funding and several other sweeteners were
removed from the bill, which then passed.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said Democrats stripped out the $2 billion in LIHEAP
money because it would have been funded by revenues from oil drilling in ANWR. Robert Greenstein of the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities said in a teleconference with reporters yesterday that there was no legal linkage between ANWR
and LIHEAP.
"The only linkage is a purely political one," Greenstein said.
He said two separate provisions in the bill related to LIHEAP. One would have dedicated "a small percentage"
of ANWR revenues to heating assistance for low-income households beginning in fiscal 2008, but that was separate from the
$2 billion authorization for this year.
It was unclear whether Santorum or U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., supported or opposed the various actions
Wednesday night that led to elimination of the heating aid. Santorum's spokesman said the senator voted against removing the
LIHEAP money but voted for the final bill.
William Reynolds, a spokesman for Specter, said the senator voted to move the $1 billion to fiscal 2007 and
voted in support of additional fiscal 2006 money for LIHEAP in an early version of the defense appropriations bill.
"However, he could not support LIHEAP funding in the final conference report of the bill because it was attached
to a controversial provision which would allow oil drilling [in ANWR]," he said. "If the funding level for LIHEAP proves insufficient,
Sen. Specter will pursue other avenues of funding."
Loss of the LIHEAP money was not the only bad news from Washington to surface yesterday. The state Department
of Public Welfare confirmed that Pennsylvania is one of five states denied permission by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
to adjust food stamp eligibility upward to allow for much higher projected energy costs.
No state won such permission. Pennsylvania and four other states were the only ones to apply.
An Agriculture Department memo released by the Department of Public Welfare pointed out that some state agencies
had asked to adjust allowances. "Regional offices should deny these requests -- unless the state agency is prepared to offer
an offsetting reduction in program costs by reducing benefit levels in another area," the memo said.
The memo said basing utility allowances on future costs would result in benefit increases "that are not contemplated
in our current budget."
By David DeKok, The Patriot News, Dec 23, 2005
CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS MISREPRESENT WHY ENERGY ASSISTANCE FUNDS WERE
STRIPPED IN SENATE
Hastert, Santorum, Gregg, Grassley Make Incorrect Statements
A number of Congressional leaders yesterday incorrectly
sought to portray a decision Wednesday to strip $2 billion in heating assistance funds from the defense appropriations bill
as being necessitated by the Senate rejection of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The facts
are clear, however, that the removal of the Arctic drilling provision had no connection (other than a political one) to the
$2 billion in funding for the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) this winter and that the decision to remove
the energy assistance funds, made by the Republican Congressional Leadership, was not necessitated by the dropping of the
ANWR provision.
The defense appropriations bill contained two
provisions related to LIHEAP funding. One would have provided $2 billion in additional funding for LIHEAP this winter.
The second provision would, starting in 2008, have dedicated to LIHEAP a small percentage of federal receipts from the Arctic
drilling. The second LIHEAP provision was tied to the oil drilling. The first provision was not.
The Congressional Leadership elected to strip out both of the LIHEAP provisions when the ANWR provision was removed
from the bill, a step that was unnecessary with regard to the $2 billion in funding for this winter. (For a further
discussion of this matter, see the CBPP analysis “Senate Cuts LIHEAP Funding,” December 22, 2005. [1])
Several Republican leaders yesterday made statements
that incorrectly claimed the removal of the ANWR provision necessitated the removal of the $2 billion in LIHEAP funds.
The Harrisburg Patriot-News reported that a spokesman for Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa), the chair of the Senate Republican
Conference, told the newspaper that “Democrats stripped out the $2 billion in LIHEAP money because it would have been
funded by revenues from oil drilling in ANWR.”[2] The claim
that the $2 billion in funding for this winter would have been financed by revenues from oil drilling is false.
Similarly, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa),
chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was quoted in the Des Moines Register as saying that when the drilling provision
was defeated, it took away the means to pay for the increase in utility assistance.[3] And Senator Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, was quoted in the Boston Globe
as saying that the only way Congress could have found extra money for the heating assistance program was through a new revenue
source such as selling leases to the drilling rights in the Arctic refuge.[4] These statements are equally misinformed.
Confusion on LIHEAP Funding Extends to Budget Reconciliation
Bill
A final misstatement came yesterday from a spokesman
for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). The spokesman attacked Senate Democrats for delaying passage of a separate
piece of legislation — the budget reconciliation bill that would cut Medicaid, student loans, child support enforcement,
and other programs — by securing the removal on procedural grounds of a few small provisions from the bill and thus
necessitating another vote on the bill in the House. The Hastert spokesman, Ron Bonjean, said this action would delay
the provision of money to help low-income families pay their heating bills.[5] This statement, as well, has no basis in fact. The only money for heating assistance contained in the
budget reconciliation bill is funding for 2007. The bill is drafted so that none of those funds could be distributed
this winter.
End Notes:
