Sen. Olympia Snowe said Thursday the continuing resolution Congress will vote on to keep the U.S. government funded for the next six months has language in it that keeps funding for low-income heating assistance at last year’s levels, a development she said was encouraging for families who rely on the funds to pay their heating bills.
In a news release, Snowe said the funding measure, which the House and Senate are expected to take up in the coming days, has language in it to keep funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, at $3.47 billion.
Without that language, Snowe said, funding for LIHEAP would have fallen to $2.82 billion over the next six months.
The LIHEAP funds “will certainly help the many families who will struggle to pay heating bills as colder temperatures arrive,” Snowe said in a statement. “While we have ensured LIHEAP cannot face a Draconian cut in funding from last year’s level, we in Congress must continue to work to find additional funding for the program.”
Participation in LIHEAP has risen 54 percent since 2008, according to the National Energy Assistance Director’s Association. Some 8.9 million households relied on the program in 2011, according to the association.
The federal Department of Health and Human Services allocated $38.6 million in LIHEAP funding to Maine last season.
On Wednesday, Gov. Paul LePage signed onto a letter with 13 other governors urging Congress to fund LIHEAP at last year’s levels.
“LIHEAP is an indispensable lifeline for the approximately nine million households struggling to pay to heat or cool their homes,” the letter read.
Dear LIHEAP. ask applicants that are begging for heating assistance if they set off fireworks this summer. when they say yes, DENY their application. explain to the dumbbells they should have been saving money for heat, not wasting it on fireworks.
i didnt use fireworks i get lheap
I would approve your application if i was a LIHEAP employee
Maybe if you were a “LIHEAP employee” you would have a little less time on your hands dear.
Maybe if the needy did waste their money on fireworks,tattoos,butts,pot,booze…there would be no need for a LIHEAP.
I didn’t get lheap but I have a firecracker.
They wouldn’t have been able to get fireworks so easily except for LePage.Biggest mistake ever was passing that completely unnecessary law.That said,I couldn’t agree more.
When people bought fireworks, they had to provide a valid Maine ID, which was scanned.
All LIHEAP has to do is crisscross applicant names applying for heat and State records of people who wasted money buying fireworks —then DENY those applicants that bought fireworks.
Ummm, what are you thinking? The ID’s were scanned in order to verify the validity of the ID. There is no huge firework purchasing data base, accessible to any state or federal entity for the purposes of tracking eligibility!! The scans are used to validate the ID, not the individual. It pops up on a screen as valid, not entered into a sub secret Paul LePage Welfare security catalog manned by 100’s of disguised enforcement agents!!!
Don’t be so sure about what secrets the R’s keep.Look at Nixon’s enemies list.
You are really stuck on this fireworks thing aren’t you?
“All LIHEAP has to do is crisscross applicant names applying for heat and State records of people who wasted money buying fireworks —then DENY those applicants that bought fireworks.”
Another anti- Big Government, anti-police state, pro individual freedom, no compromise conservative, no doubt, slips up and shows her true colors.
Fireworks phobia is treatable.
Yep, it is . . . it’s called ‘someone get over their little self’. ;D
You do not waste money buying fireworks, when you can not afford to heat your house in the winter.
I understand what you are saying. The problem is that at least some of the people that would be affected would be children. In most households, adults make the spending decisions, and most of them make wise choices. Should children who live in households with immature adults pay the price for their parents’ short-sightedness? I don’t think so.
You do not waste money buying fireworks, when you can not afford to heat your house in the winter.
First of all, it’s not against the law to set off fireworks. Secondly, and according to you, people that are of lower incomes aren’t granted the same rights as those who aren’t? Lastly, HOW do you know (within the framework of your stipulation that people that are “begging for heating assistance” shooting off fireworks…………even purchased them? You don’t. You just are assuming that: they aren’t entitled to purchase anything that you feel in inappropriate simply because they are eligible. Someone should explain to this “dumbbell” that low income people have the same exact rights as he does. I’m sure that he will thoroughly explain how he saves every cent he has in the first week of July for the purposes of buying fuel for heat, and does not enjoy himself whatsoever over the fourth of July……….I rather doubt it. And that his grandma, who collects social security, should not be spending her tax payer’s dollars enjoying herself……..at any time of the year.
It’s not a question of rights…of course people of any income level have the right to purchase anything that they desire. It’s more a question of wise decisions made on the part of low income people(what can we afford in our budget and what can’t we afford). Too often, the result of poor decisions are the sole reason why many collect welfare of one form or another. You can’t seem to fathom that in a capitalistic system, we’el always have haves and have nots. In an ideal socialistic or communistic system I might agree with you, but unfortunately because of the ways socialism is practiced I can’t sympathize with your response.
Sorry,SR is right.There is no value to fireworks at all and they have destroyed Maine.In my house the necessary items are bought first,anything than can be patched and reused is,
and THEN and ONLY THEN are luxuries in the picture.I live as cheaply as I can and my tax dollars are to be used in the same way.
I wonder how much fuel oil could have been purchased for the price of a couple of firecrackers and a maybe a ground burst? Two, maybe three gallons? I’d be more inclined to deny assistance to those people carrying around $200 iPhones and Androids. $200 is appx 50 gallons of fuel, appx 1/5 of the average household fuel tank. We’re in an age where having a cell phone is a wise decision, however, having a cell phone which is a camera, gameboy, computer, and all around companion isn’t a necessity. Is a firecracker a necessity? No, but it’s certainly cheap entertainment for a family that has little money for entertainment.
You do not waste money buying fireworks,when you can not afford to heat your house in the winter.
“Dear LIHEAP. ask applicants that are begging for heating assistance if they set off fireworks this summer. when they say yes, DENY their application. ”
Oh, now LaPage’s firework initiative makes sense.
It’s not about business, it’s a class warfare thing, too.
That “same level” was already reduced to the point of being dangerous, wasn’t it ?.
Especially, if the East Coast looses the destabilized Jet Stream lottery, this winter.
So does this thinking include that Steve and Tabby King’s funding MUST must remain the at same level, too ?
Stephen King Raises Money for Low Income Maine Residents
http://www.writerswrite.com/blog/121820111
Stephen King is helping out Maine residents who are unable to afford …that it was cutting funds from to help low income people buy heating oil from …Stephen told the newspaper, “Tabby and I are grateful to everybody who …
Funding the same price of oil is up many people will be cold. Why is gas $4.10 in Bangor? Me thinks the oil companies are making a bit too much.
If you added up ALL THE MONEY the needy spent every day and every week for the past year on: booze,tattoos,POT,fireworks,cigarettes,parties,vehicle exhaust pipes,vehicle stereos, cell phone,deluxe cable/satellite packages, body piercings, ……if you added ALL that money the needy wasted, how much money will it be? Tens of millions of dollars? Hundreds? How much heating assistance would that buy for the needy?
Or wasting the money…..$5 billion a week killing Iraqis and Afghans
What happened to all that free oil from Iraq that Cheney promised us….So far the war has cost the US 3 trillion dollars….and they are funding LHEAP at under $3 billion….We spend $2.2 million a MINUTE in the wars in the Middle East…..and what do you and I ….I don’t mean the millonaires…get out of it?
I hate to toot my own horn….this is from another forum i posted in:
“I agree with skowheganresident; ALL these people that are shooting off fireworks all the time seem to have plenty of money for beer and Fireworks, but they can’t buy fuel or pay for their own heat, electricity,or food.
I have a neighbor that cried that his power was going to be shut off, so someone gave him some extra work, paid him and then the guy went and bought more beer and FIREWORKS, and to top it off he waits until dark and then starts shooting off these loud noisemakers”
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/fireworks-rule-fails-in-fairfield_2012-09-12.html