Congressman Hodes Participates in NH Congressional Delegation Meeting on LIHEAP

For Immediate Release

July 18, 2008

Contact:        Mark Bergman

                202-225-5206

Congressman Hodes Participates in NH Congressional Delegation Meeting on LIHEAP

Washington, DC--- Today, Congressman Paul Hodes participated in a bipartisan conference call with Governor John Lynch, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter and Senator John Sununu to discuss federal funding options for LIHEAP and other home heating oil assistance programs.

Congressman Hodes also announced that he would be meeting with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter next week to discuss funding options in upcoming appropriations legislation.

“With thousands of New Hampshire families facing a winter with record home heating prices, many will be forced to make a difficult choice between feeding their children or keeping them warm and healthy,” Congressman Paul Hodes said. “We are doing everything we can to avert a crisis for Granite Staters this winter.”

Earlier this week, Congressman Hodes sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, urging her to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to $9 billion in a second economic recovery package.  To ease the burden of rising heating costs and expand eligibility for the program, he believes it will be necessary to more than triple current funding.  He is also requesting $1 billion for Weatherization Assistance and a release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to lower prices at the pump.

He is co-authoring a bill with Congresswoman Shea-Porter legislation to help triple LIHEAP funding for working New Hampshire families.

Congressman Hodes also has introduced bipartisan legislation to allow for the Secretary of Energy to release heating oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve if the price of heating oil remains above $4 per gallon.  This legislation has been introduced in the Senate on a bipartisan basis by Senators Snowe and Kerry. 

The Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve was created in 2000 as an emergency response to interruptions in heating oil supply.  The Reserve is designed to serve New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the New England states - a region that contains over 6 million households that use heating oil.

This new legislation would allow heating oil from the reserve to be released if the president found that high prices were causing a threat to public safety and health.  The bill also would create mandatory, incremental releases from the reserve if the price of heating oil is over $4 per gallon from November through March.