On the recordDecember 14, 2011
I am here today to talk about the importance of sustained funding and support for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, better known as LIHEAP. I know it is something my colleague, the Presiding Officer, cares very much about as well. LIHEAP helps households pay home heating costs and targets funds for those families with the lowest incomes and the highest energy costs. In 2010, nearly 165,000 families in Minnesota used this critical lifeline. As the Presiding Officer knows, our home State may be known as the land of ice hockey and ice fishing and other winter sports, but our tough winters can be downright dangerous to families struggling to pay their utility bills and trying to keep the heat on. Even as Minnesota's economy has weathered the recession better than most, we have seen a great increase in need for assistance with heating bills. From 2008 to 2010, there was a 30-percent increase in families who needed energy assistance. Without sustained funding for LIHEAP at current levels, we risk pushing these 38,000 families out into the cold. This October, I joined with Members from many cold weather States, as my colleague did, in a letter that urged the Department of Health and Human Services to release LIHEAP funds as quickly and at as high a level as possible. We must follow up on this action by fully funding LIHEAP. On October 28, the Department of Health and Human Services released $1.7 billion for LIHEAP.…
