Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said Wednesday "the perfect storm" of rising oil prices and falling federal heating assistance has hit Maine residents hard.
The senator was at York County Community Action in Sanford, Maine, one of several stops she's made recently to community action corporations throughout the state to hear firsthand the impact of reduced funding for the Low Income Heating Assistance Program.
The White House budget for 2012 recommended cutting funding roughly in half, from $4.7 billion to $2.5 billion — a "draconian measure," Snowe said. Congress added an additional $1 billion just before Christmas, bringing the amount of aid to $3.5 billion.
"There really wasn't much of a tussle between the House and the Senate about that," she said in an interview Wednesday. "That's a rare exception."
But Snowe said the money is not enough to help poor Mainers and others in cold-weather states get through the winter. She has filed a bill, sponsored in the House by Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree, to fully fund LIHEAP. She admitted the bill isn't getting a lot of traction.
"It's a tough battle. We had urged the majority leader in the Senate (Sen. Harry Reid) to allow time for debate on our measure, but we haven't gotten it thus far," she said. "But we're not giving up. We're going to continue to drive it through the next funding process."
That's especially necessary, given the stories she said she's heard around the state, she said. On Wednesday, she heard from a couple with three young children. He lost his job and has been looking for work. She is training to work in the health care field. They have been unable to buy oil, so they have been warming their home with space heaters, she said.
"Their electric bill is out of sight, as you can imagine," Snowe said. "They're doing everything right, but they can't even find part-time jobs in this very difficult economy."
In Maine, she said, full funding would add $10 million for heating aid. With heating oil at $3.70 to $4 a gallon, the money is "desperately needed here."
She said she is working to build a coalition of senators who are hearing similar stories from their constituents when they are in their home states.
"It gets back to the government's obligation," she said.
The situation is compounded by "a lot of volatility in the price of oil that is subject to unpredictable events in the Middle East — especially the situation with Iran and Strait of Hormuz," which the Iranian government is threatening to close.
"Frankly, we should have had an energy policy long ago," she said. "How many situations does it take to put a country on edge and always subject to unbelievable dictators?"
Snowe said Congress had plenty of time in the past year and the year before to tackle substantive legislation, but has been stalemated by infighting.
"It's just terrible," she said. She and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, are "practical problem-solvers. In our neck of the woods, that's what we do. But they just want to fight about it.
"How can you go home to your district and talk with real people and possibly come back and do what they're doing in Washington? How is that possible?"