Washington DC (July 10, 2008) – The Senate Appropriations Committee missed an opportunity today to increase weatherization assistance and provide relief to low-income energy consumers.

The Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill cuts the Weatherization Assistance Program by 12 percent to $200 million. The committee failed to include an amendment that Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., had been working on to bump up weatherization funding by $50 million, to match the House bill’s total of $250 million.

“I am deeply disappointed in the Senate bill’s reduction of the Weatherization Assistance Program. Never has the program been more needed or in more demand,” said National Community Action Foundation Executive Director David Bradley.

Local weatherization crews, many of which are deployed by Community Action Agencies across the country, utilize federal program dollars to weather-proof energy inefficient homes and upgrade heating and cooling systems for tens of thousands of low-wage working families and retirees each year. The Department of Energy estimates these improvements lower a household’s energy bills an average of $358 per year and reduce a home’s energy use by 20 to 30 percent from the time the updates are implemented, up to at least 20 years.

“Increased weatherization funds would serve as a timely national response to high energy bills for the most vulnerable of America’s households. Instead, the bill takes funding from weatherization to fund long-term energy research and development that may or may not produce future gains,” Bradley said. “It is not wise to neglect more proven and immediate home energy-saving upgrades for long-range experiments. Reducing energy use is the cheapest and most common-sense approach to easing energy demands.”

Bradley explained that there was no shortage in available funding. As a whole, the Department of Energy was allocated $27.2 billion above this year’s funding, and every energy research and development program in the department was increased. The House Appropriations Committee, which has the same amount of money in its Energy and Water bill, has provided a 10 percent increase for the Weatherization Assistance Program in 2009.

“The Community Action network is grateful for Senator Reed’s leadership in highlighting the importance of funding the Weatherization Assistance Program and will continue working with him and others to ensure the 2009 growth provided in the pending House bill is enacted when the final appropriations legislation is adopted.”