2004-0111
INTRODUCED BY: CLAYTON FAUCHEUX, COUNCILMAN-AT-LARGE, DIVISION B
BARRY MINNICH, COUNCILMAN, DISTRICT VII
RESOLUTION NO.
Title
A resolution requesting that the Louisiana Congressional Delegation be urged to join with other members of the House and Senate from the South and West in support of legislation that would rectify the regional funding biases and inequities produced by the current LIHEAP distribution formula, which deprives Louisiana families of just and needed funds and which has not been amended since 1985.
Body
WHEREAS, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) were established by Congress to provide block grants to states that can be used to help low income families meet home energy costs and weatherize their homes to conserve energy and reduce further energy bills; and,
WHEREAS, while LIHEAP has been re-authorized by Congress at up to $3.4 billion per year, it has rarely been funded at more than $2 billion; and since the program was instituted in 1981, LIHEAP's inflation-adjusted buying power has sagged to 48 percent of its original size; and,
WHEREAS, LIHEAP and WAP are today inadequately funded and thus incapable of addressing the growing energy assistance and conservation needs of low income families; and,
WHEREAS, the formula by which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services allocates LIHEAP grants to individual states severely discriminates against Louisiana and other southern states by favoring heating needs of people in northern states, ignoring the fact that extreme heat is as detrimental to the health and lives of people as extreme cold; and because the formula is driven by decades-old population, income and energy price data; and,
WHEREAS, the federal Weatherization Assistance Program must be adequately funded to reduce energy consumption and expenditures of families living in substandard, leaky, inefficient housing by permitting them to insulate th...
Click here for full text