Statement of NFFN Board Chairperson Sue Montgomery Corey
NFFN News Conference
Detroit, MI
March 23, 2010
At a time when many Americans are still reeling from the effects of the current economic recession, home energy bills are causing additional hardships. Not only are those with fixed or low-incomes feeling the pinch of this growing home energy burden, but so to are many middle income families.
Millions of people have turned to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to obtain some relief from the home energy burden they are shouldering. This past winter has been brutal driving up energy usage and creating higher than average utility bills. The prospect of a hot summer offers little respite from this problem.
In response to this energy emergency, the National Fuel Funds Network launched the National Action for LIHEAP, a grassroots lobbying effort by our more than 300 members designed to gain increased funding for the federal energy assistance program.
As the first step in the campaign, the NFFN has written to the Congressional leadership asking them to provide an additional $2.5 billion in funding for LIHEAP for FY 2010 and $7.6 billion for FY 2011. Our members across the country will take steps to deliver this same message to their Congressional delegations.
The number of households served by the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is projected to reach 8.8 million this year, up by almost 13 percent over last year’s record of 7.7 million, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association.
Recently released results of NEADA’s Winter Application Survey showed that applications for assistance were up by more than 15 percent in 21 states and more than 25 percent in Michigan, Mississippi, Washington, and Nevada.
Many reports from the Network’s 300 member programs across the US also document the increasing need for home energy assistance.
This increase in requests for assistance is putting unprecedented strain on already limited LIHEAP funds. Historically LIHEAP has served less than one out of five eligible households but despite increased funding millions of qualified Americans are still going without federal energy assistance.
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LIHEAP recipient Markita Brown describes to reporters how energy assistance grants had helped her with her home energy bills |
As we begin to move out of winter’s grip, the need for help with the home energy bills generated during the winter has not lessened. For this reason, we have written to the leadership in Congress to ask that a supplemental appropriation of $2.5 billion for LIHEAP in FY 2010 be enacted.
The National Fuel Funds Network supports the current request to appropriators in
the House in increase LIHEAP appropriations from the President’s request for $3.3 billion to $5.1 billion, the FY 2010 level. And we will support any similar efforts in the Senate. But this increase is not enough, given the circumstances described above. Accordingly, the Network asks Congress to approve $7.6 billion in funding for LIHEAP for FY 2011.
The need is there. People are struggling. No American should have to choose between keeping their home livable or feeding their family. No senior citizen or person with a disability should have to choose between medication or utility bills.
