Washington, DC - In an effort to provide federal assistance to households struggling with home energy bills, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) is once again leading the effort to restore federal heating assistance to low income families and fixed income seniors to past years’ levels. 

Today, Senator Reed and 39 of his colleagues sent a bipartisan letter to President Obama urging him to restore Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to no less than the FY 2011 level of $4.7 billion.  Last year, the President’s budget proposed reducing LIHEAP funding from $4.7 billion down to $2.57 billion.  Senator Reed and his colleagues were able to partially restore funding to $3.5 billion for FY 2012.

“Over 36,000 Rhode Island households depend on LIHEAP assistance to get by during the bitter winter months and Congress needs to do everything it can to ensure that families in need do not get left out in the cold,” said Reed.

Last year, Rhode Island received over $31 million in LIHEAP funding, assisting over 36,000 households. This year Rhode Island is expected to receive approximately $23 million of LIHEAP funding across the state.  The National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association projected that the President’s proposed FY 2012 cut to LIHEAP threatened to reduce the overall number of households served nationwide by over 2 million. 

Text of the letter attached: