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Regular Session, 2011 ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON NO. 33
BY SENATORS BROOME, ALARIO, APPEL, CROWE, MARTINY, MICHOT, SMITH
AND THOMPSON
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON
To memorialize the Congress of the United States to sustain home energy assistance for at-
risk Louisianians and to declare June 2011 as "Save LIHEAP" Month.
WHEREAS, the federal home energy assistance program is of vital interest to the
state of Louisiana and to low to moderate income households, especially the elderly,
disabled, or young citizens, who struggle disproportionately to afford heating and cooling
costs; and
WHEREAS, Congress is considering the proposed budget to reduce the fiscal year
2012 Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) formula grant funding by
fifty-seven percent nationally; and
WHEREAS, this reduction is disproportionately more damaging in Louisiana,
triggering a sixty-seven percent loss, resulting in the life-threatening decrease of 34.7
million dollars to Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, due to the loss of these funds, tens of thousands of vulnerable Louisiana
citizens will lose access to the LIHEAP's vital energy services; and
WHEREAS, more than four hundred and seventy-six thousand Louisiana households
meet LIHEAP's stringent income eligibility requirements; and
WHEREAS, of these households, one hundred eighty-four thousand shelter someone
over the age of sixty, ninety-six thousand are children under the age of six, and one hundred
and fifty-four thousand are handicapped individuals, including disabled veterans; and
WHEREAS, for a Louisiana family of four to be eligible for LIHEAP, the family
must earn no more than twenty-seven dollars per day, per capita; and
WHEREAS, although nearly a half-million Louisiana households meet LIHEAP's
federal income criteria, only a small fraction of eligible households are actually helped due
to already limited federal funding; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana's ability to reach at-risk families through LIHEAP is entirely
dependent upon the provision of adequate funding from Congress; and SCR NO. 33 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, home energy assistance is particularly important in Louisiana due to
intermittent intense heat and humidity, which is especially threatening to the elderly,
disabled, and young citizens; and
WHEREAS, if the program's core block grants were reduced as proposed,
Louisianians would be disproportionately affected, because the national program would be
statutorily precluded from considering current population, poverty, and energy price data and
mirroring outdated needs of twenty-five years ago; and
WHEREAS, unless Congress sustains LIHEAP, Louisiana's most vulnerable citizens
will be placed at an unnecessarily greater risk.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Louisiana Legislature hereby declares
June, 2011 to be "Save LIHEAP Month" and encourages public and private citizens to join
in by encouraging their respective congressional delegation to sustain this vital program at
its long-standing national appropriation of five point one billion dollars during federal Fiscal
Year 2012.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana hereby
memorializes the Congress of the United States to sustain home energy assistance for at-risk
Louisianians and to declare June 2011 as "Save LIHEAP" Month.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution shall be transmitted
to the secretary of the United States Senate and the clerk of the United States House of
Representatives and to each member of the Louisiana delegation to the United States
Congress.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES