Kerry, Kennedy urge $2 billion in funding for low income Home Energy Assistance Program

[Breeze54]

Kerry, Kennedy urge $2 billion in funding for low income Home Energy Assistance Program

http://www.johnkerry.com/2008/5/13/kerry-kennedy-urge-2-billion-in-funding-for-low-income-home-energy-assistance-program

May 13, 2008 - 04:49 PM

KERRY, KENNEDY URGE $2 BILLION IN FUNDING FOR LOW INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

BOSTON – Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy today are urging their colleagues in the Senate to include $2 billion in federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in the FY08 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill.

“As energy prices continue to rise, thousands of Massachusetts families are having extreme difficulties making ends meet, and are in immediate danger of having their essential utility services cut-off,” said Senator Kerry. “These families need our help now. They shouldn’t be forced to worry about where their next meal is coming from or risk going without medical care while big oil companies continue to reap big profits.”

“Families need immediate help getting out from debt left over from last winter’s energy bills. We should act now to ensure families aren’t forced to make impossible choices between essentials like life-saving medicine and food or heating and cooling their homes,” said Senator Kennedy.

The text of the letter is as follows:

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
S-221
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510


The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader
S-229
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510


Dear Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell:


With energy prices skyrocketing and millions of families struggling to pay their home heating oil, propane, kerosene and other utility bills, we are writing to urge you to include $2 billion in federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in the Fiscal Year 2008 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill. We believe these LIHEAP funds should be split evenly between formula funding and contingency funding.

According to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA), representing the state directors of LIHEAP, a record-breaking 15.6 million American families or nearly 15 percent of all households are at least 30 days overdue in paying their utility bills. Several states have laws on the books that impose a moratorium on cutting-off essential utility services in the winter. However, these utility shut-off moratoriums expire during the spring. Without additional LIHEAP funding, senior citizens on fixed-incomes, low income families with children, and persons with disabilities from across the country are in danger of having their essential utility services shut-off this spring.

In fact, NEADA has recently reported that:

· In California, 1.7 million households are at least 30 days late paying their energy bills owing a combined $300 million.

· In Iowa, 218,360 households are at least 30 days late paying their energy bills owing a combined $36.5 million.

· In Massachusetts, approximately 100,000 households are at least 30 days late paying their energy bills owing a combined $100 million.

· In New Mexico, 15,629 households are at least 30 days late paying their energy bills owing a combined $3.9 million.

· In Oklahoma, 115,015 households are at least 30 days late paying their energy bills owing a combined $9.2 million.

· In Pennsylvania, 650,477 households are at least 30 days late paying their energy bills owing a combined $341 million

· In Wisconsin, 42,506 households are at least 30 days late paying their energy bills owing a combined $42.5 million

Rapidly rising energy costs are the major reason that so many Americans are late in paying their energy bills. It is extremely important that additional LIHEAP funding be included in the Supplemental to address these urgent needs.

LIHEAP is not only a life-saver in helping millions of Americans heat their homes during the winter in cold-weather states, it is also very important to warm-weather states in helping to provide air conditioning assistance during the summer.

No family in our nation should be forced to choose between paying an energy bill and putting food on the table for themselves and their children. No senior citizen should have to decide between buying life-saving prescriptions and paying utility bills. For individuals and households that may have to face these difficult choices, LIHEAP makes a real difference in their ability to cope with adverse circumstances.

For all of these reasons, we are urging the inclusion of $2 billion in LIHEAP funding split evenly between formula funding and contingency funding in the FY ’08 Supplemental Appropriations bill. We look forward to meeting with you to discuss this very important matter soon.

Sincerely,


John Kerry
Edward Kennedy
Bernard Sanders
Susan Collins
Gordon Smith
Jeff Bingaman
Olympia Snowe
Max Baucus
Barbara Boxer
Debbie Stabenow
Blanche Lincoln
Robert Menendez
Sherrod Brown
Robert Casey
Charles Schumer
Maria Cantwell
Norm Coleman
Sheldon Whitehouse
Jack Reed
Amy Klobuchar
Claire McCaskill

[midnight]

1. Private meetings held by our Vice president with energy Co.

have had a horrific impact on Americans being able to live normally/safely. These secret meetings are a threat to our safety and the maneuver by Kerry and Kennedy is helpful,but it is not getting to the root of the problem.

[blm]

2. We need to elect more open government Democrats and STOP supporting Dems who protect secrecy

and privilege of closed government.

[Breeze54]

3. I thought Waxman was investigating it? It's taken him 6 yrs to get any info!

Well, it sure will help needy families and families in the middle class in the meantime!

------------

Papers Detail Industry's Role in Cheney's Energy Report

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701987_pf.html

By Michael Abramowitz and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; A01

At 10 a.m. on April 4, 2001, representatives of 13 environmental groups were brought into the Old Executive Office Building for a long-anticipated meeting. Since late January, a task force headed by Vice President Cheney had been busy drawing up a new national energy policy, and the groups were getting their one chance to be heard.

Cheney was not there, but so many environmentalists were in the room that introductions took up "about half the meeting," recalled Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth. Anna Aurilio of the U.S. Public Interest Group said, "It was clear to us that they were just being nice to us."

A confidential list prepared by the Bush administration shows that Cheney and his aides had already held at least 40 meetings with interest groups, most of them from energy-producing industries. By the time of the meeting with environmental groups, according to a former White House official who provided the list to The Washington Post, the initial draft of the task force was substantially complete and President Bush had been briefed on its progress.

snip-->

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who unsuccessfully pushed for details of the meetings, said it is "ridiculous" that it has taken six years to see who attended the meetings. He described the energy task force as an early indicator of "how secretively Vice President Cheney wanted to act."

Waxman said he was not surprised to see the prevalence of energy industry groups on the list of meetings. "Six years later, we see we lost an opportunity to become less dependent on importing oil, on using fossil fuels, which have been a threat to our national security and the well-being of the planet," he said.

More....

----

[politicasista]

4. K&R

:kick:

[Breeze54]

5. You read my mind!

:D

Thanks! :hi:

[politicasista]

6. You're welcome

:hi: