As winter temperatures in the Northeast plunged to single digits, the Senate overwhelmingly approved Tuesday a $300 million increase in federal assistance to help low-income heating customers pay their utility bills throughout 2003.

By a vote of 88 to 4, the Senate adopted the provision as part of an omnibus spending package to fund the federal government through Sept. 30. The increase would bring total spending for the Low-Income Heating Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to $2 billion for the current fiscal year. The additional monies for the program would come from LIHEAP funds that were left over from 2001.

The House voted to maintain spending at the 2002 level of $1.7 billion for LIHEAP as part of its omnibus spending package. Congress must pass a final spending bill before President Bush makes his State of the Union address on Jan. 28, which gives the two houses less than a week to reconcile their difference on funding for the LIHEAP program.

The additional funds, assuming the Senate’s level of spending for LIHEAP prevails, could be distributed to the states through the Department of Human Health and Services (HHS) within the next couple of weeks, said a natural gas industry source in Washington, DC. He noted that 80-90% of LIHEAP funds are used during the winter months to defray the heating costs for low-income customers.

Both the Senate and House have adopted more aggressive spending for LIHEAP than Bush, who has proposed cutting funding for the base LIHEAP program to $1.4 billion for this year, and spending $300 million for the emergency program. “My gut [feeling] is [Bush] will not oppose” any hike in LIHEAP spending approved by Congress, the industry source noted.

Citing the president’s concerns over rising energy prices, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday Bush will call for increased LIHEAP spending for fiscal 2004 as part of his budget request to be sent to Congress in early February. “I’m not going to give out the specific numbers,” he told reporters, when pressed for the amount of the hike.

“We’re very pleased” by the Senate’s action because the $300 million would go for the base LIHEAP program, the gas industry source said. “It’s more important to have it [the spending increase] in the base program” because the funds are more easily diverted to the states, instead of the emergency program where “you never know if it will be released” to help the estimated 4.5 million heating customers that the program serves.

The Senate’s move to increase LIHEAP funding “will clearly make a difference…the states are running out of money” for the program, said Mark Wolfe, who heads up the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents the state energy directors who help to dole out the funds.

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