Order Code 94-211 EPW
Updated April 18, 2001
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
The Low-Income Home Energy
Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Melinda Gish
Analyst in Social Legislation
Domestic Social Policy Division
Summary
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP), originally
established in 1981 by Title XXVI of P.L. 97-35 and reauthorized several times, is a
block grant program under which the federal government gives states, the District of
Columbia, U.S. territories and commonwealths, and Indian tribal organizations (referred
to as grantees) annual grants to operate multi-component home energy assistance
programs for needy households. The FY2001 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L.
106-554), includes a total of $1.7 billion in FY2001 LIHEAP funding: $1.4 billion in
regular funding and $300 million for weather emergencies. In his FY2002 proposed
budget, President Bush requests the same level of funding for FY2002: $1.4 billion in
regular LIHEAP funding, and $300 million in emergency funds.
In FY2000, LIHEAP received a total of $2 billion in funding, $600 million of which
was supplemental emergency funding included in the FY2001 Military Construction
Appropriation bill (P.L. 106-246). The $600 million included in the supplemental
appropriations bill was to be available until expended. On December 18 and 30, 2000,
President Clinton released $155.65 million and $300 million, respectively, allocated to
all states, marking the last portion of FY2000 supplemental funds and all of the
emergency funds appropriated for FY2001. These funds were for states to assist low-
income households facing significant price increases for heating oil, natural gas, and
propane prices during the winter. This report provides background on LIHEAP and will
be updated periodically.
Recent Developments. On April 9, 2001, President Bush released his FY2002
budget, which includes a request for $1.4 billion in regular LIHEAP funds, and $300
million in emergency funds– the same amounts provided for FY2001. On March 15,
2001, the Senate passed the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2001 (S. 420), which includes an
amendment (S.Amdt. 28) which would increase the LIHEAP authorization to $3.4 billion
for each of FY2001-FY2005. The amendment would also allow states in FY2001 to
extend eligibility for LIHEAP benefits to households with incomes up to 200% of poverty
(rather than the current statute’s 150% of poverty, or 60% of state median income).
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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Federal Standards and Grantee Responsibilities. LIHEAP is a federally-
funded block grant program that helps ease the energy cost burden of low-income
individuals. Federal requirements are minimal and leave most important decisions to
grantees. The federal government (the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS))
is prohibited from dictating how grantees implement their “assurances” that they will
comply with general federal guidelines. Federal law limits eligibility to welfare recipients
and households with incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty income guidelines, or, if
higher, 60% of the state median income. No household with income below 110% of the
poverty guidelines may be excluded based solely on income. Within these limits, grantees
decide which welfare categories to include, what income limits to use, whether to impose
other eligibility tests, and may grant priority to those with the greatest energy needs or
cost burdens. Federal standards require grantees to treat owners and renters “equitably,”
to adjust benefits for household income and home energy costs, and to have a system of
“crisis intervention” assistance for those in immediate need. LIHEAP assistance does not
reduce eligibility or benefits under other aid programs. Federal rules also require outreach
activities; coordination with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) weatherization program;
annual audits and appropriate fiscal controls; and fair hearings for those aggrieved.
Grantees decide the mix and dollar range of benefits, choose how benefits are provided,
and decide what agencies will administer program components.
Participation and Benefits. Preliminary estimates of the number of households
that received various forms of LIHEAP assistance are available from HHS. Those
estimates, based on data reported by the states, indicate that in FY1999, 3.4 million
households received regular heating cost assistance and 748,000 received winter crisis aid.
These data do not reflect an unduplicated count of households, but rather an estimated
count of households that received each category of assistance. In addition to heating
assistance provided by LIHEAP funds, cooling aid was provided to an estimated 480,000
households, summer crisis aid to 194,000 households, and weatherization assistance to
87,000.
The most recently released data regarding average LIHEAP benefit amounts indicate
that the average heating/winter crisis benefit amount in FY1998 was $213, approximately
the same as the average for FY1997 ($214). The average cooling/summer crisis benefit
for FY1998 was $248, an increase of 78% from FY1997. The percentage of federally
eligible households assisted with LIHEAP benefits has declined from 36% in 1981 to 13%
in FY1998.
Funding. The FY2001 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 4577, P.L. 106-554)
includes a total of $1.7 billion in FY2001 LIHEAP funding: $1.4 billion in regular funds
and $300 million in emergency funding.
In its version of an FY2001 Labor/HHS/Education bill (H.R. 4577), the House had
proposed $1.1 billion, plus $300 million in emergency funds, for LIHEAP in FY2001, and
an advance appropriation of $1.1 billion for LIHEAP in FY2002. The Senate bill (S.
2553), which was incorporated into H.R. 4577 as an amendment and passed by the Senate,
includes the same funding amounts for FY2001 as those included in the House version but
did not include an advance LIHEAP appropriation for FY2002.
The FY2000 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 3194/P.L. 106-113) provided
$1.1 billion, plus $300 million in emergency funding for LIHEAP. It also included $1.1

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billion in advance funding for FY2001. These amounts were the same as those provided
for FY1999 (P.L. 105-277). The FY2000 funding was designated as a “budget
emergency” and therefore for budget “scoring” purposes was not counted against the
federal budget caps.
Each grantee receives a percentage share of the annual federal LIHEAP
appropriation. If the annual federal appropriation is below $1.975 billion (which has been
the case for regular LIHEAP funds since FY1987), states receive the same percentage
share that they received in FY1984. The formula on which the FY1984 percentage shares
were determined took into account data available at that time pertaining to: heating
degree days squared, home heating expenditures, total residential energy expenditures,
number of low-income households, and other factors. In the event the annual
appropriation were to exceed $1.975 billion, a different formula for calculating states’
percentage shares would go into effect.1 Under either scenario, annual federal grants can
be supplemented with: (1) funds from “oil price overcharge” settlements (money paid by
oil companies to settle oil price control violation claims and distributed to states by DOE),
(2) state and local funds and special agreements with energy providers, (3) money carried
over from the previous fiscal year (4) rarely used authority to transfer funds from other
federal block grants, and (5) grants under an incentive program for grantees that
successfully “leverage” non-federal resources.
Table 1 shows a history of LIHEAP funding, including Presidential requests, the
authorization level, and the actual appropriated amount for each of FY1982-FY2002.
Authorization. P.L. 105-285 reauthorized LIHEAP at “such sums as may be
necessary” for FY2000 and FY2001, and $2 billion annually for FY2002-FY2004, with
no major changes. Earlier reauthorizations made an appropriations authorization for a
special fund of $600 million a year in case of emergencies; required that benefits and
outreach activities be targeted on those with the greatest home energy needs (and costs);
stipulated that appropriations for a given fiscal year be made in the previous year’s
appropriations Act; and established a “Residential Energy Assistance Challenge”
(REACH) grant program to help reduce recipients’ home energy costs. The authorized
level of LIHEAP funding is shown for FY1982-FY2001 in Table 1.
Table 1. LIHEAP Funding Trends: FY1982-FY2002
($ in thousands)
Fiscal year
Administration request
Authorization level
Appropriation
1982
$1,400,000
$1,875,000
$1,875,000
1983
1,300,000
1,875,000
1,975,000
1984
1,300,000
1,875,000
2,075,000
1985
1,875,000
2,140,000
2,100,000
1986
2,097,765
2,275,000
2,010,000
1 For more information see CRS Report RS20893, The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
Program: How are State Allotments Determined?, by Craig W. Abbey.

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Fiscal year
Administration request
Authorization level
Appropriation
1987
2,097,642
2,050,000
1,825,000
1988
1,237,000
2,132,000
1,531,840
1989
1,187,000
2,218,000
1,383,200
1990
1,100,000
2,307,000
1,443,000a
1991
1,050,000
2,150,000
1,610,000
1992
1,025,000
2,230,000
1,500,000
1993
1,065,000
such sums as necessary
1,346,030
1994
1,507,408
such sums as necessary
1,737,408b
1995
1,475,000
2,000,000
1,319,000
1996
1,319,204
2,000,000
900,000
1997
1,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
1998
1,000,000
2,000,000
1,300,000b
1999
1,300,000
2,000,000
1,400,000b
2000
1,400,000
such sums as necessary
2,000,000c
2001
1,400,000
such sums as necessary
1,700,000d
2002
1,400,000
such sums as necessary
Source: Table prepared by CRS based on HHS Budget Justifications.
a Includes $50 million in emergency funding.
b Includes $300 million in emergency funding.
c Includes $900 million in emergency funding. P.L. 106-113 provides $300 million for emergency funding, while P.L.
106-246 provides an additional $600 million in FY2000 supplemental funds.
d Includes $300 million in emergency funding.
Emergency Fund Releases. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2001 (P.L.
106-554) provides $300 million in FY2001 emergency funding for LIHEAP. On
December 30, 2000, President Clinton released all of these emergency funds available for
FY2001. As shown in Table 2, these funds were allotted to all states, with the northeast
and midwest states receiving the greatest proportion of funds. Also shown in Table 2 are
the totals, by state, of FY2000 emergency funds released by President Clinton. As
mentioned above, $300 million in LIHEAP emergency funding was originally appropriated
for FY2000. By mid-February of 2000, all of that amount had been released, at President
Clinton’s direction. He sent Congress an emergency supplemental request for $600 million
which would provide additional emergency funds for LIHEAP through the end of FY2000.
On March 30, 2000, the House passed a FY2000 supplemental spending bill (H.R. 3908),
which included President Clinton’s requested $600 million in additional LIHEAP
emergency funding. However, following the House passage, Senate Majority Leader Lott
pronounced the supplemental package as dead on arrival in the Senate. Senator Lott
instead stated that he favored moving FY2000 supplemental funding as part of the regular
FY2001 appropriations bills.
The FY2001 Military Construction Appropriation bill (H.R. 4425, P.L. 106-246)
included $600 million in FY2000 supplemental emergency funding for LIHEAP, which

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would remain available until expended. The last portion of these funds was released by
President Clinton on December 18, 2000.
The most recent releases of emergency funds have been allocated to all states, to
assist low-income households facing significant increases for heating oil, natural gas, and
propane prices this winter. Overall, allotments have been weighted for states with a
greater percentage of households using fuel oil, natural gas, and propane for heating.
However, on August 23, 2000, President Clinton released $2.6 million in emergency
LIHEAP funds to Southern California, for low-income households that had been facing
substantially higher electricity rates. Likewise, most of the summer releases of FY2000
emergency funds targeted southern states, to help low-income families cool their homes
during the extreme summer heat. Alaska, on the other hand, received emergency funding
during the summer of 2000, which was used to assist families in native Alaskan villages
with buying heating oil for the coming winter. For families dependent on salmon fishing
for their livelihood, a poor salmon run (for the fourth year in a row) resulted in a lack of
cash for buying heating oil for the winter months.
Table 2 shows the total amount of FY2000 and FY2001 emergency funds that each
state received. HHS was directed to release FY2000 emergency funds on eight different
occasions. For example, on January 26, 2000, President Clinton released $45 million to
11 states hit hardest by increases in home heating fuel prices, and experiencing severe
winter weather. During February 2000, he authorized the release of the remainder of the
$300 million in emergency funds initially appropriated for FY2000. On February 10, 2000,
$130 million was released according to the following breakdown: $85 million was
allocated to all LIHEAP grantees under the normal block grant formula mentioned above,
and the other $45 million was allocated to 11 states that HHS determined to be most
affected by increasing oil and propane prices. The following week, on February 16, 2000,
the President released $120 million in LIHEAP emergency funds, this time to 31 states that
had a “price impact factor” of at least 5%. That factor equals the percentage price
increase in heating oil and propane this year, over the same period last year, multiplied by
the percent of low-income households using heating oil and propane.
Table 2. LIHEAP Emergency Fund Allocations by State:
FY2000 and FY2001
($ in thousands)
FY2000
FY2001
State
emergency funding
emergency funding
Alabama
$ 12,177
$ 2,429
Alaska
12,827
1,573
Arizona
2,249
1,047
Arkansas
5,107
1,867
California
31,998
13,786
Colorado
10,507
4,938
Connecticut
24,122
6,570
Delaware
3,968
844
District of Columbia
2,185
967
Florida
7,434
2,761
Georgia
12,648
3,127
Hawaii
421
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FY2000
FY2001
State
emergency funding
emergency funding
Idaho
3,198
1,439
Illinois
39,272
18,541
Indiana
17,085
8,019
Iowa
12,954
5,873
Kansas
5,786
2,732
Kentucky
8,281
3,559
Louisiana
9,529
2,466
Maine
25,162
4,007
Maryland
14,985
4,768
Massachusetts
50,944
13,057
Michigan
38,076
18,053
Minnesota
27,506
12,195
Mississippi
8,477
2,113
Missouri
15,104
6,885
Montana
4,259
2,049
Nebraska
6,255
2,923
Nevada
1,069
488
New Hampshire
13,578
2,407
New Jersey
49,027
12,678
New Mexico
3,340
1,598
New York
149,784
41,136
North Carolina
17,889
4,969
North Dakota
5,130
2,275
Ohio
33,770
15,878
Oklahoma
4,976
2,378
Oregon
5,921
2,631
Pennsylvania
72,760
21,399
Rhode Island
10,181
2,248
South Carolina
7,460
1,804
South Dakota
4,706
1,914
Tennessee
7,841
3,152
Texas
19,560
6,302
Utah
4,967
2,356
Vermont
7,079
1,743
Virginia
17,136
5,049
Washington
9,361
4,160
West Virginia
5,331
2,447
Wisconsin
24,462
11,124
Wyoming
1,910
894
Territories
492
203
Total
899,999
300,000
Source: Table prepared by Congressional Research Service (CRS) based on data released by the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS). Totals may not add due to rounding.

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