Ohio’s HEAP reduced in House proposal

By Sarah Einselen

Inquirer Reporter

A pro­posal in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to rework the for­mula that allots home energy assis­tance monies among the states is likely to fur­ther reduce the fund­ing that Ohio gets, accord­ing to Sen. Sher­rod Brown (D-OH). Brown urges Ohioans to sup­port an alter­na­tive pro­posal, now in the Sen­ate, that leaves the cur­rent fund­ing for­mula in place.

Both the House and Sen­ate bills con­tain sim­i­lar fund­ing lev­els for the Low Income Home Energy Assis­tance Pro­gram, or LIHEAP, but the pro­posed House plan makes allo­ca­tion changes that would give Ohio and other colder-weather states, like Michi­gan and Wis­con­sin, a smaller per­cent­age of the funds than they have pre­vi­ously received.

The Sen­ate plan has already cleared the Appro­pri­a­tions Commit-tee and relies on a for­mula that has been used since 1980 to empha­size the needs of colder-weather states like Ohio. Under the Sen­ate pro­posal, Ohio would receive nearly $173 mil­lion in LIHEAP funds, but under the House plan, the state would receive approx­i­mately $157.4 mil­lion. LIHEAP funds went to 426,410 Ohio house­holds in 2010.

Regard­less of the dif­fer­ences in the House and Sen­ate plans, Ohio will receive less fund­ing than last year because of over­all cuts in the fed­eral budget.

“Peo­ple have gen­er­ally been sat­is­fied with how the pro­gram has worked,” Brown said. He is unsure why the House com­mit­tee changed the for­mula and has not heard whether the need for air-conditioning in warmer states was a fac­tor in the decision.

Posted by Sarah Einselen on Nov 7 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.