Thanks to a continuing budget resolution approved by Congress last week, Maine is due to start 2011 with its full allocation of heating assistance funds.
The three-month stopgap budget measure was rushed through after Republicans blocked the 2011 spending bill. It holds government spending at last year’s level.
In this case, that’s just what’s needed. The Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program was facing a 40 percent reduction for the coming year. The budget impasse in Congress helped provide a reprieve for LIHEAP.
The program’s funding was sustained, as well, by support from senators from cold-weather states, led by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Jack Reed, D-R.I. Under the interim spending bill, Maine stands to get $53 million from the $5.1 billion in funding for the federal block grant program.
It will provide the same level of support as the previous budget to the many who may need help keeping warm. As Sen. Snowe said last week, Mainers are struggling with an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent and heating oil prices that are 12 percent higher than last year. This is no time to cut such an essential aid program.
With cold weather upon us, those who need heating assistance can contact York County Community Action to apply for help with their heating bills.
In preserving this aid, the congressional deadlock was helpful. In many other cases, the lack of a comprehensive spending bill is expected to create problems. A federal budget freeze will affect Homeland Security efforts, for instance, force the IRS to put off a major systems upgrade and may affect implementation of health care reforms.
Also lost in the deadlock, according to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is the extension of a pilot program allowing heavy trucks to travel on federal interstate highways in Maine. The expiration of the successful program will divert truck traffic back to state and local roads, raising costs and safety concerns.
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