[R]ep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has introduced a bill in the U.S. House that would put $5.1 billion into low-income energy assistance programs over the next five years.
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding would double for Vermont if the legislation is passed. It would go from roughly $19 million to $38 million, according to Welch’s office.
Over the past seven years, federal funding for LIHEAP has been reduced by 30 percent.
Welch’s proposal, if it gains traction, could help to restore state LIHEAP funds that were axed this year.
In the last legislative session, Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Vermont Legislature voted to eliminate $6 million in state funding for LIHEAP as part of a $53 million package of reductions in state spending. In fiscal year 2015, the state was slated to spend a total of $26 million in state and federal dollars on the LIHEAP program.
Lawmakers agreed with the Shumlin administration’s proposal to cut state funding because low fuel prices took financial pressure off the program last winter. Oil prices dropped to below $3 a gallon in the first few months of 2015. In the two previous years, the rate hit $4 a gallon, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Advocates say the reduction in supports is dramatic, and if prices go up in the future low-income families could suffer.
Karen Lafayette, of Vermont Low Income Advocacy Council, has said the average benefit a LIHEAP recipient was about $783 in the 2015 fiscal year. That benefit will be cut to an estimated $545 in the coming fiscal year.
More than half of Vermont families who received Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding are at or below the poverty level. Ninety percent of households that qualify nationally have at least one resident who is a child, elderly or disabled, according to a press release.
“Families should never have to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table,” Welch said in a statement. “During the brutal winter months, keeping the heat on is a necessity, not a luxury.”
Vermont Law School found that low income Vermonters spend a larger proportion of their income on heating costs.
Low-income residents often use more expensive sources of heat — such as electric space heating or small propane tanks — because they cannot afford cheaper options that require large upfront investments, like filling an oil tank. Some use grill propane tanks, space heaters, hair dryers and open ovens to keep warm.
According to the report, nearly three-quarters of Vermonters earning less than $14,000 spent on average 27 percent of their income on home heating in 2012, a 40 percent jump from 2000. The average income earner in Vermont — about $52,000 per year — spent 6 percent of his or her income on heating costs, a 20 percent increase over the same period.
Cold homes cause about 170 deaths in Vermont every year, double the number of lethal automobile and transportation accidents, the VLS authors wrote.
The bill, H.R.2194, would amend the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981 for fiscal years 2016 through 2020, according to a bill summary from the Congressional Research Service. The bill covers cooling costs for low-income families, Welch’s office said.
A bipartisan coalition of Northern representatives has sponsored the bill: Rep. Peter King, R-New York, Rep. James McGovern, D-Massachusetts, and Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pennsylvania. A letter from the co-sponsors that was sent to the House Appropriations Committee has signatures from 142 other members of Congress.
Editor’s note: Anne Galloway contributed to this report.