Durbin Says Help is on the Way: Illinois Set to Receive $74 Million to Assist Low-Income Residents Heat Their Homes
DURBIN SAYS HELP IS ON THE WAY: ILLINOIS SET TO RECEIVE $74 MILLION TO ASSIST LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS HEAT THEIR HOMES
- U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today said Illinois will begin receiving almost $74 million in additional funds to help residents pay for heating bills through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
Durbin said that the funds for Illinois are a portion of $1 billion in additional assistance Congress secured this month for fiscal year 2006 and released today by the Department of Health and Human Services.
"Help is on the way for Illinois residents who are facing a terrible choice - heating or eating," Durbin said. "Heating bills are up almost 20% in the Midwest this winter and Illinois LIHEAP officials tell me that without federal assistance, the remaining funds will not be sufficient to cover Illinois residents who have applied for payments. These desperately needed LIHEAP funds are being released just in time."
LIHEAP is a federally-funded program which provides heating and cooling assistance to almost 5 million low-income households nationwide, including the working poor, those making the difficult transition from welfare to work, disabled persons, the elderly and families with young children. Assistance comes in the form of block grants to state programs that help eligible households pay for home energy costs.
Illinois currently has less than $20 million in available funds remaining in its account, and Illinois LIHEAP officials say that will not be sufficient to cover the remaining eligible applications. Of the approximately 800,000 Illinoisans eligible, about 350,000 have applied for help from LIHEAP and about 300,000 have received assistance.
In Illinois, requests for government help to pay heating bills were up over 40 percent in 2005. Last year, LIHEAP allowed the states to help about 5 million people out of an estimated 32 million eligible for assistance nationwide. As part of the energy bill signed into law last summer, Congress authorized $5.1 billion annually for the program for fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007. However, the final spending bill for fiscal 2006, which began in October, contained only $2.16 billion for the program despite attempts by Durbin and other Democrats to increase LIHEAP funding.
http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=253102&&