LIHEAP Funding Wiped Out of Defense Appropriations Bill

LIHEAP FUNDING WIPED OUT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL

Sen. Chuck Grassley today released the following statement after the Senate voted to defeat ANWR and thus wiping out funding for Iowa through the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program.

Last week, Grassley protested a formula established by Congress nearly two decades ago and then secured authority for the administration to distribute the money where it's most needed, in states such as Iowa, rather than simply doling out dollars to big states in the South.

Money for LIHEAP was included in both the Defense appropriations bill and the Budget reconciliation package. The defense appropriations bill included $2 billion for LIHEAP, but when ANWR was defeated, it took away the funding mechanism to help low income Iowans with their heating bills. The budget reconciliation package passed the Senate on Wednesday morning and now must again be approved by the House of Representatives. The LIHEAP funding in this bill would not be available until 2007.

Here is Grassley's comment.

"It's very frustrating that the Senate could not provide heating assistance for low income Iowans. The very same Senators who voted to remove the ANWR provision that included LIHEAP last night are the same ones who are howling that we can't get heat for low-income people. We have Americans who need help and 48 Senators turned their back on them with that vote."

http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=4989&Month=12&Year=2005